DONKEY KONG 64 APE ESCAPE READY 2 RUMBLE
poinT of impacT: seqa oreamcasT
i_oao up with Hi-TecH super BazooKas,
gaTLing guns ana acia BLasiers
againsT si menacing monsTers with
unique moaes op aTTacK.
expLore Dinosaur isLana as eLiTe
sea rescue organizaTion memBer
eliot BaLLaoe or former Heavy
weapons experr Dogs Bower.
uncover the secreT of Dinosaur iSLano.
CLIMAX
GRAPHICS
AcliVisioH
www.acTivision.com
Sega#Dreamcast
0 1999 SEGA ENTERPRISES. LTO. Sega. Sega Dreamcast and Blue Stinger are trademarks of SEGA. This game is licensed for use with the Sega Dreamcast system only.
Published and distributed by Activision, Inc. Activision is a registered trademark of Activision, Inc. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association.
All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.
he 1999 holiday season is shaping up to be one of the
most fiercely competitive this industry has ever seen.
Sony's PlayStation, while aging, is quickly reaching the
largest installed base in history, as is a slew of titles based
on popular series. Case in point: Capcom's Resident Evil,
which drove hardware sales through the roof in 1996, and
which shows no signs of either creative or commercial
slowdown with its third installment, is sure to bring the
thrill of fear into your home once again. For the full story,
see page 28.
Nintendo's equally aging Nintendo 64 doesn't have an
obvious flagship title on the order of Zelda this year, but
that doesn't leave it unarmed either. Second-party
powerhouse Rare is supplying three new games — Jet
Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64. and the hotly anticipated
unofficial sequel to GoldenEye, Perfect Dark. It remains to
be seen whether DK 64 will be "hotter than Zelda," as
Nintendo claims, but you can judge for yourself. A complete
look inside Rare begins on page 22.
Which leaves Sega. You may notice there's no separate
Dreamcast section this month, and for good reason.
Dreamcast has arrived — in spirit, if not in fact — and it
continues to impress as the most exciting system currently
available. Check our coverage of Blitz 2000, Ecco the
Dolphin, Vigilante 8, Toy Commander, Hydro Thunder, and
what is turning out to be the surprise hit of Dreamcast's
early lineup, the fast (and funny) Ready 2 Rumble. Alphas
begin on page 27.
AUGUST 1999
CONTACT _
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RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
Few games have helped propel PlayStation's drive to market dominance the way Capcom's Resident Evil series has. The original was
the console's first breakout hit (selling upward of 6 million copies), and its sequel garnered similar sales and a lot of TV commercial
time. But as the hardware ages and the series moves into its third incarnation, can it still compete? Judge for yourself
RARE’S TRIPLE THREAT
Nintendo's second-party powerhouse is gearing up for a major
holiday season with Jet Force Gemini, Donkey Kong 64, and the
unofficial sequel to GoldenEye, Perfect Dark
THE PIRACY FILES
Our first "How To" article" — how to lose your money, your
freedom, your friends, and just about everything else you hold
near and dear, and how it all ends up in a woodchipper...
ANALYZING
intelligence
Gaming news and analysis from around the
world, plus all the usual columns
18
NG JAPAN
What's hot — or in some cases, what's just plain
odd — in Japan lately
NG SPECIAL
Rare's triple threat
Three massive games for Nintendo 64
NG SOFTWARE
INTELLIGENCE
The industry is reaching for the mass market — is it a good market, or a bad market? • Is a
portable PlayStation in Sony's future? • The latest on Nintendo's new Dolphin console
ALPHAS: 31 games previewed
Presenting a bigger-than-usual assortment of extraordinarily noteworthy up-and-coming titles —
including half a dozen for Dreamcast — that you will want to know about
FINALS: 1 A games reviewed
The first word on Descent 3, and a surprise hit for PlayStation, Ape Escape — plus a few other
surprises, all coming under the scrutiny of the most exacting reviewers in the business
Alphas
The games you'll be playing over the next year
28
Resident Evil 3
PlayStation
32
F355 Challenge
Arcade
34
Ecco the Dolphin
Dreamcast
36
Hydro Thunder
Dreamcast
37
NFL Blitz 2000
Dreamcast
38
Ready 2 Rumble
Dreamcast
40
Battlezone 2
PC
41
Jet Moto 3
PlayStation
44
Vigilante 8
Dreamcast
46
Toy Commander
Dreamcast
48
Die Hard Trilogy 2
PlayStation
52
The Sims
PC
54
Jump Runner
PC/DC
55
Fear Factor
PlayStation
56
Soldier of Fortune
PC
58
Evolva
PC
60
Hostile Waters
PC
61
Army Men Air Attack
PlayStation
62
SWAT 3
PC
63
Crusaders of M & M
PlayStation
64
Genesis: Aperian 7
PC
66
SF Rush 2049
Arcade
NG SPECIAL
The piracy files
A case study of the long arm of software law
1 81
GALLERY
The art of gaming
Celebrating the aesthetics of 3D rendering
1 85 |
RATING
Finals
So many games, so little time
85 Ape Escape PlayStation
86 Descent 3 PC
90 Bloody Roar 2 PlayStation
90 Croc 2 PlayStation
92 imperialism ll PC
92 Jane's Fleet Command PC
93 Midtown Madness PC
98
ENDING
Next Generation brings you down easy: enjoy
tidbits from readers and highlights from the past
98
Retroview
Taking a look back
100
Letters
we love our readers
103
Next month
ng 57 on sale 08/17
05
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
t MIDWAY
www.midway.com
The #1 Selling Football Game for
Nintendo 64 and Game Boy Color
Best N64 Sports Game
—Nintendo Power
Best Sports Game of the Year
—As voted by visits to
www. playstation, com
Sports Game of the Year
—VideoGameSpot
RULES
JUST
SLOW
YOU
L^JUFLi*
24 YARD PASS'
Easy-to-learn arcade-style play with new
“Icon Passing” for one touch long bombs
“On-Fire” Mode gives super power
performance to your hot, star players
icHrimi
The SuperBowl Champion
of Football Games
NFL Blitz " 2000 brings you all of the things you
love about football and none of the things that
slow it down. This ground-breaking sequel features
awesome weather effects, new secret heads, and
scores of new game play features. With more
easy-to-run plays and all new animations for
taunts, end zone dances, and tackles you’re
headed for the ultimate in football action!
GREEN BAY
JVEW ORLEANS
Larger, customized playbooks for each
team, with powerful playbook editor
New 4 player mode for
bruising your friends
PC images shown.
The industry is facing great change and greater acceptance.
Meanwhile, Nintendo plans its next system
INTELLIGENCE
Game industry news and analysis
GEARING UP FOR THE MASSES
The game industry is courting the mass market,
but does that mean the end of the game world as we know it?
of 100 million, with Nintendo's
Dolphin reaching 55-60 million.
Infogrames, until now known for
its PC titles, particularly the Alone in
the Dark series, will now be focused
almost entirely on console titles. To
further this goal, it recently snapped
up Accolade (and made Accolade
CEO Jim Barnett the CEO of
infogrames North America), a
company that has achieved no small
success on PlayStation with its Test
Drive franchise.
Barnett describes his company's
future as publishing "global, mass
market digital entertainment," further
defined by Bonnell as "entertainment
on every single platform you can
imagine. Mobile phones, watches,
planes, PC, online..."
Exactly what sort of titles will
appeal to the mass market, however,
no one is clear on. For its part,
infogrames will continue to publish
some of its old-school titles, with
Alone in the Dark 4 in
tens of millions of people will find
appealing, and as the industry
becomes increasingly wowed by
looming profits, will it abandon the
kind of games that hardcore
gamers love?
French publisher infogrames is
gearing its entire strategy toward
the growing mass-market
acceptance of games. President and
CEO of infogrames Entertainment
Bruno Bonnell anticipates that
PlayStation 2 will be the first
console to reach an installed base
INFOGRAMES
□ imply put, video and
computer games are more
popular now than at any time in
history, and the trend shows no
sign of stopping. As the industry
moves firmly into the next
generation, companies great and
small are coming to expect massive
profits and, what's more, the kind
of mass audiences enjoyed by
other entertainment media like film
and television. However, to achieve
these ends, publishers will have to
provide the kind of content that
08
Will the current drive to capture mass-market success spell the end of
hardcore games like Accolade's Slave Zero [above] or infogrames'
Outcast [right]? Perhaps, but then again, perhaps not
infogrames may be aiming for mass-market success by furthering
series like Mission: impossible [above], but its continued development
of Alone in the Dark 4 [top] is aimed squarely at the hardcore
and titles like Outcast and Slave
Zero appealing to the hardcore
gamer. The company is also hoping
to grow the success of its Mission:
Impossible and Test Drive franchises
to reach massive audiences (with
both franchises having already
exceeded a million units).
"It's go big or go home," Barnett
says, to which Bonnell adds, "There
won't be room for small players."
Infogrames is not alone in its
drive to reach the masses, with THQ
recently announcing a slate of titles
all clearly targeted at non-traditional
game players. With MTV Extreme
Sports , WWF, and rodeo titles all on
the way, THQ feels it has established
a "mass-market strategy," according
to Vice President of Marketing
Joseph Adney ill.
Which is exactly the problem,
of course: "mass market" is
traditionally associated with titles
like THQ's wrestling games or
infogrames' Mission: impossible, in
short, licensed and bland. With
more companies coming to the
conclusion that such games are
required for survival, it might mean
the end to complex, challenging,
gamers' games.
On the other hand, not
necessarily. True, over the past
several years developers getting
their toes wet in the mass-market
pond have tried to make games that
appeal to both the hardcore and the
mythical mass consumer, usually by
slapping on a recognizable license
or dumbing down the gameplay.
However, what is now developing is
a firm division between "mass"
products and "hardcore" products,
which has freed up some
developers to explore particularly
complex ideas. Despite its mass-
market mission, Infogrames hasn't
abandoned titles like Slave Zero, a
promising sign.
it can do this because the game
market, like any other, is a pyramid.
As millions gobble up the flashy-but-
simple wrestling titles, some percent
of those gamers will become
interested in more complicated
games, and some percent of that
group will look for games even more
complex than those, and so on. As
the mass market grows, so will the
number of hardcore gamers.
Aware that the budding mass
market means a blossoming
hardcore market, smart publishers
are picking up major talents for the
next generation to produce titles
that might otherwise confuse the
average Joe. For example, Midway
(perhaps the epitome of mass-
market gaming), has signed 7
Studios, a design house run by
exactly seven developers (including
such luminaries as Erik Yeo, one of
the masterminds behind Command
& Conquer) whose reputations as
hardcore gamers are well earned.
As you might expect, 7 Studios
will not be working on licensed
products; it will instead be
developing action/strategy titles
for PlayStation 2.
infogrames, meanwhile, in its
effort to discover what next-
generation mass-market titles will
be like, is also fostering young
talent. Bonnell says, "The
companies that are in trouble are
those that are old-fashioned with
old talent. You need young,
talented designers who grew up
with videogames" to reach a
generation that was raised on
games. For the hardcore, this is
good news — it is, after all, unlikely
that young designers raised on
games will spontaneously decide
that the best games are based on
deer hunting.
"Our obsession is critical
mass," Bonnell explains. "We have
no choice." while that critical mass
may mean great profits for the
companies, it looks unlikely it will
mean an end to great games. RTO
CAN PC GAMES REACH
THE MASSES?
Before there were consoles,
the PC was home to all gamers
worth their salt. But as the
console revolution has
avalanched, the PC market has
grown more slowly, making it a
“second rate” business,
according to Infogrames’
Bonnell.
It’s a particularly challenging
market because while consoles
are a worldwide sensation, the
PC is only strong in the U.S.
and Germany. With companies
keeping their eye on the mass-
market pie, the PC has a lot of
growing up to do before it can
be considered a window to
million-seller hits.
Rob Dyer, president of
Eidos Interactive’s North
American operation, is no
stranger to the continental
divide between the booming
console market and the not-so-
meteoric PC market. As former
head of Crystal Dynamics, a PC
and console developer, and now
president of one of the world’s
largest multi-platform
publishers, Dyer remains
unconvinced the PC will hit
mass market.
The PC will not be mass
market until it’s plug and play,’’
Dyer says. While Dyer sees
consoles becoming like VCRs in
the next generation — a must-
own — the PC’s learning curve
will remain a tremendous
barrier. Bonnell agrees. “Most
high-end PC games are too
complicated,” he says with a
smile. “Even ours.”
However, the PC market
could eventually get near the
kind of critical mass consoles
are now approaching. Dyer
looks to plunging PC prices and
the fast technology cycle of the
PC (while consoles stay put for
years, the PC is always
improving) as two of its
potential strengths in reaching
larger audiences. But in the
end, he never sees the PC
becoming the kind of consumer
appliance for games that
consoles will become over the
next generation.
Does this mean an end to
PC games? No. There is always
money to be made in PC
games, and Dyer, for one, does
not see the console swallowing
the PC’s market. “Games on
PC that are successful are
completely different from
console games,” he explains.
"And they always will be.”
"Mass-market" has traditionally meant unchallenging but flashy
gameplay like Accolade's Test Drive [left] or THQ's WCW games [right]
09
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
DOLPHIN SHOCKER:
NO MOVIES, “VERY AGGRESSIVE” PRICE
Lincoln reveals key details of Nintendo^ plans for Dolphin
“You will not be able to play audio CDs on
Nintendo’s machine, and you will not be able to
Nintendo's Dolphin strategy is a bold departure from the hardware
practices the company has followed since NES launched in 1985
ost people were so
stunned at Nintendo's E3
announcement that it would have
partners for Dolphin, rather than
going it alone, that they missed
what may have been a hint of an
even more interesting — and
important — part of Nintendo's
strategy: an extremely low price
for the unit.
According to Howard Lincoln,
CEO of Nintendo of America, while
Nintendo's partners' machines
(most likely Panasonic-branded DVD
players) will be able to play Dolphin
games as well as DVD movies and
audio CDs, "you will not be able to
play audio CDs on Nintendo's
machine, and you will not be able
to play movies. That's something
that's already established."
Why not? "Nintendo is a
videogame company, and that's
exactly what our device will do —
play the best videogames around.
Our partners will have devices that
will play games and movies and
music: We are committed to
bringing out the best videogame¬
playing device at a very, very
aggressive price point." While
Lincoln refused to comment on
specific price points — Next
Generation has heard launch
estimates as low as $99 — he
acknowledged that "as we go
forwards toward launch, [price
point] is going to be something we
focus very carefully on."
This strategy is interesting for
two reasons. First, it shows that
Nintendo and partners are
committed to having real
distinctions between the
capabilities (and prices) of Dolphin-
enabled machines: the Dolphin
partners are clearly interested in
promoting Dolphin as a long-lasting
technology platform and standard,
not a single retail product with the
typical five-year console lifespan.
Second, and perhaps more
importantly, is the fact that
Nintendo is electing to produce the
less expensive and more limited
hardware. The company seems
more comfortable in its established
role of (relatively) low-cost toy
manufacturer and marketer, and it
will leave competing with Sony in
the high-end consumer-electronics
markets to partner Matsushita.
in fact, based on the
announcements so far, while
Nintendo was responsible for
coordinating the other Dolphin
partners (IBM, Matsushita, and
ArtX), it almost seems as if it is the
junior partner in the hardware itself.
If true, this represents a major
paradigm shift from the Super NES
days, when the company's
insistence on controlling hardware
scuttled a major CD add-on deal
with Sony (leading, ultimately, to
Sony's entrance in the market with
PlayStation). Nintendo, it seems, has
determined that the future lies
more in content creation with its
incalculably valuable properties like
Mario (and, of course, in licensing
third parties) than it does in rigidly
controlling all aspects of hardware
production and marketing. G33
NEVUS DYTES
Compiled by Aaron John Loeb of Next Generation Online
Dolphin in 2000? Not likely, if
you ask most of Nintendo's
competitors and industry
analysts. Nintendo's new
console is still being designed,
making it unlikely, experts say,
that IBM and NEC will be able
to manufacture enough of the
machine's processors and
graphics chips in time for the
announced Fall 2000
worldwide release. While a
limited release is possible,
Nintendo has also stated that
N64 is only halfway through its
lifecycle (a statement lent
credence by growing sales of
the hardware), it is unlikely
that conservative Nintendo
will enter the next generation
until it must, making a 2000
release look less and less
probable. The franchise that
just keeps giving: EA Sports'
John Madden Football. The
company recently indicated
its plans to keep on rolling
out the Maddens by
registering the Internet
domains for Madden
2000-2004. Apparently, by 2005
the Sl-billion-and-growing
behemoth expects to be able
to afford flying real football
teams to every gamer's home,
whose side are they on,
anyway? Semiconductor
industry papers recently
reported that NEC, one of
Sega's closest partners in the
Dreamcast project, will
manufacture the graphics chip
for Nintendo's Dolphin. NEC,
apparently chosen by the
Mario Corp. for its expertise in
embedded RAM technology, is
in serious financial straits,
having lost over $1 billion
dollars last year. Beggars can't
be choosers... And the
Grammy goes to... Tommy
Tallarico. Well, not yet, but the
National Academy of Recording
Arts & Sciences recently
announced the addition of a
mysterious "Other Visual
Media" category, likely
meaning videogames, to the
three award categories already
(continued on page 12)
10
0.02
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE HINT>
OUTSMARTING IT WILL ONLY
}— L - n MAKE IT SMARTER.
it’s thinking (
sega.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PLAYSTATION PORTABLE
IN THE WORKS
Reliable sources confirm project
WHAT IS IT?
Most RPGs feature save-the-world
themes. In this one, you’re a farmer.
ony, clearly jealous of
Nintendo's awesome success
with Game Boy Color, is considering
readying a handheld for release,
according to reliable sources. There
are two scenarios currently in play
(both are probably being pursued
simultaneously by SCEA). in the
first, Sony acquires U.S. distribution
rights for SNK's impressive Neo
Geo Pocket (NG 55). in the
second, Sony launches an original
PlayStation-1-based device.
There are some hurdles for
either scenario. Sony faces other
bidders for Neo Geo Pocket,
including acquisition-hungry
Hasbro, one of the few companies
that could go toe-to-toe with
Nintendo in the marketplace. Also,
SNK is touting current NGP's
Dreamcast connectivity; and while
PlayStation connectivity is in the
planning, if Dreamcast is a success
in the U.S., SNK would certainly
want to take advantage of that
success, something it couldn't do
if Neo Geo Pocket had a Sony
label on it.
More likely is a portable
version of PlayStation. According
to our sources, the device would
look like a hybrid Sony DiscMan,
with a 2.25-inch screen on the
front of the disc cover. Supplied
with a lithium-ion battery and low-
power versions of PlayStation's
CPU (which is also being used as
the I/O chip in PlayStation 2) and
graphics chip, the unit would
probably include an integrated
digital controller, but no analog
capabilities. Although a DiscMan-
sized player would be a lot less
portable than the diminutive Neo
Geo Pocket or Game Boy Color, it
would boast compatibility with the
entire PlayStation library.
Either way, the slick-looking
but unimpressive PocketStation
(with its pathetic 32x32 pixel
display), which was conspicuously
absent from Sony's booth at E3,
will probably never see release
on American soil. K©
NEWS BYTES
Compiled by Aaron John Loeb of Next Generation Online
(continued from page 10)
given for film and television
soundtracks. Tallarico, one of
the best-known musicians in
the industry, was last seen
walking the floor of E3 in a
leopard-print suit followed by a
pair of surgically enhanced
women and a dwarf in green
body paint. Upon winning, he
no doubt intends to thank all
the little people. Sega's new
challenge. At the beginning of
June, Sega of Japan held a
special conference in which it
announced it would lower the
price of Dreamcast in that
country by around $80, from
¥29,800 ($245) to ¥19,900
($165). While the company
attributed the price drop to
decreasing manufacturing costs
being passed on to the
consumer, the less charitably
inclined would point to the
system's failure to outsell even
Nintendo 64 (universally
accepted to be a failure in
Japan) for the first half of 1999.
it's official: Sony president
(and PlayStation designer) Ken
Kutaragi has announced that
factories will start producing
PlayStation 2 Emotion Engine
processors this month in
preparation for the system s
public unveiling at Tokyo Game
Show in September. Still, don't
expect the system to launch
until Sony has stockpiled
enough units to meet demand
— most likely not until
December or later, old
companies never die... they
just become internet startups!
interactive Magic announced in
March that it would sell off its
unsuccessful retail cd-rom
publishing business and
become an internet-only
company, redubbed the iMagic
Entertainment Network. The
company recently closed the
sale with ubi Soft, which will
pick up iMagic's retail titles.
This leads critics to wonder
when Ubi Soft will sell off its
unsuccessful retail CD-ROM
publishing business and
become an Internet-only
company.
For daily game news, go to
www.next-generation.com.
IN THE STUDIO
Five Westwood employees,
including a programmer from the
C&C: Tiberian Sun team, have
left the company to form their own
development group. (As a result,
Tiberian Sun may suffer further
delays.) The new company, called
Liquid Entertainment, has been
formed by Ed DelCastello, a former
employee of both Westwood and
Origin. The team is being backed
by Crave Entertainment. Seven
other employees joining the
company come from Origin,
Blizzard, Paradigm, and Iguana. The
group of 12 (and growing) is based
in Thousand Oaks, just outside Los
Angeles, and is already working on
a realtime strategy title for PC.
What's Universal Interactive
planning for the future? Word on
the street is that several
developers are bidding for the
company's highly-coveted Bruce
Lee license. It's likely the game
will be developed for PlayStation
2. Other PlayStation 2 titles in the
works? How about a 3D remake of
Spy Hunter , being developed at
Paradigm Studios, to be
published by Midway.
Presto Studios' forthcoming game
Beneath has been put on hold by
Activision, and while neither
Activision nor Presto could
comment at press time as to the
status of the project, another
industry insider suggests that
Mindscape may be picking up
the publishing rights to the title.
First previewed in NG 48, and
originally scheduled for spring of
'99, Beneath is a fantasy-
exploration game in the style of
Tomb Raider
Three former Singletrac
employees have formed
incognito, a new Salt Lake
City-based developer that will
focus on PlayStation and
PlayStation 2 games. Former
Singletrac Producer Scott
Campbell, former Senior Software
Engineer Steve Poulson, and
former Director of Production
Software Randy Zorko, whose
works include Twisted Metal,
Twisted Metal 2, Rogue Trip,
and Warhawk, have launched the
company and are planning to build
up to two teams, while Campbell
maintains the group's parting with
GT/Singletrac was an amicable
one, Next Generation has
learned that several other
publishers are courting the
developer.
Not since the rock group Journey
graced the arcades with its self-
titled videogame has there been a
rock-intro-games crossover of this
magnititude. One of the original
princes of glam, Ziggy Stardust
himself, David Bowie, will be
providing all original songs for
Omikron (first previewed in NG
44), a PC game being developed
in France by Quantic Dream and
set to be published by Eidos.
Bowie's likeness will also be
modeled into the game, as a
character named Boz. Bowie's
wife, supermodel iman, is
tentatively scheduled to be
modeled into the game as well.
The third-person adventure puts
players in the role of a beat-cop
who patrols the futuristic domed
city of Omikron, or is it Suffragette
City?
IT IS
Harvest Moon from Natsume. Originally
for Super NES, a Nintendo 64 version is
due later this year
PlayStation
PSYGNOSIS
WWW.WIPEOUT3.COM
PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Wipeout, Psygnosis and the Psygnosis logo are m or® of Psygnosis Ltd. All rights reserved.
The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association.
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
GADGET WATCH
Sick of your analog stick? No problem
14
TILTFORCE/TILTPAK
Accessory newcomer Pelican has
introduced two new motion-
sensitive controllers for Nintendo
64 and PlayStation. Both use
analog-chip technology from
Analog Devices to sense the
position of the controller in space,
SEGA:
LOSSES CONTINUE
Already $2 billion in debt, Sega
Enterprises of Japan estimated a
net loss of ¥45 billion ($378 million)
in the financial year ended March
31. The loss was mostly blamed on
amusement operations outside of
Japan and unsold Saturn inventory.
Sega said it would cut 25% of its
4,000-strong workforce and close
about 100 arcades (most in Japan,
apparently). The company posted a
consolidated loss of ¥35.6 billion
($299 million) the previous year.
Despite reports to the contrary
in the arcade-industry trade press,
Sega has no specific or current
plans to download videogame
software to arcades, according Al
Stone, president of Sega Enterprises
USA. "We are certainly researching
satellite downloading technology,"
says Stone, "but development of
this is not complete or definite by
any means. At present, there is no
plan for introduction of such
technology. There is a possibility of
future introduction of this type of
system someday, but I'd like to
stress that there is no specific plan
right now." Regarding Sega's
volume of Naomi shipments, Stone
much like Microsoft's Freestyle Pro,
replacing motions of an analog stick
with the motion of the pad itself.
For N64, the Tilt Pak plugs into
controller pack slot (it also functions
as a rumble pack), with a dongle
that goes between the controller
says one recent report "sounded as
if Sega had already shipped 200,000
units of our Naomi arcade board.
Actually, our first-year plan for
Naomi is to ship that many boards
worldwide, we have not yet done so
by any means."
By the way, the Sega
Tournament Network (STN) began
its public "alpha phase" testing in
May. The test is ongoing in Sega
GameWorks locations only. This
network links games via modem for
instant, nationwide score rankings.
MIDWAY'S
GAME LOCATOR
Midway Games launched an
"arcade game locator" service last
month on the company website at
www.midway.com, designed to help
players find their favorite Midway
and Williams coin-op games at
locations around the world. The
game locator can be accessed from
the Midway web site or directly at
www.midwayarcade.com/locations.
The locator database is updated
every business day and currently
includes the four latest Midway
titles, CarnEvil, NFL Blitz 99, Hydro
Thunder, and NBA Showtime: NBA
on NBC.
cord and the N64, while the
PlayStation Tilt Force comes as a.
replacement dual analog controller
(with dual shock compatibility, too).
Both retail for $29.95, and in testing
we found both units worked equally
well. With both you can adjust the
sensitivity of the motion sensing or
turn it on and off on the fly.
How does it help games? For
flight games and snowboarding
titles, the greater range of motion
the Tilt products enable gave us
much finer and more detailed
control — and controlling a game
by moving the whole pad is kind of
a cool novelty in itself, where the
products really shined for us was in
driving games — moving the whole
pad seemed much more intuitive
than steering with a joystick. Even
action/adventures like Tomb Raider
controlled well. While certainly not
for all games (fighting games,
especially, don't benefit), the
NEWS & NOTES
Capcom Coin-Op Inc. and SNK have
confirmed their "Capcom vs. SNK"
videogame will go to arcades as
well as the new SNK handheld unit,
but at press time neither company
knew which would build and
market the arcade version...
America's most successful arcade
chain for grownups, Dave &
Buster's, will list shares of common
stock on the New York Stock
Exchange under the ticker symbol
DAB. They are already trading on
Nasdaq under the symbol DANB...
Sega GameWorks has announced
plans to open its third Florida
location. The company signed an
agreement with Steiner &
Associates, managers of the Centro
Ybor, to open a 21,000 sq. ft.
GameWorks at the new retail
entertainment complex slated to
open in spring 2000... Psygnosis'
hugely popular PlayStation game
WipeOut has been released as a
fully interactive motion-simulation
game for Thomson Entertainment's
Venturer S2 capsule simulator. This
version includes an expanded range
of weapons and additional features
such as pit stops and bonus scoring
checkpoints.
TiltForce and TiltPak are well worth
checking out if you're looking for an
edge. Pelican's web site is
http://www.pelicanacc.com.
TRUESTEER
On the low-tech side of things,
invent-tech has introduced the
TrueSteer, a foam-rubber steering
wheel that actually snaps onto
your existing N64 controller. It
then mechanically converts the
rotational movement of the wheel
into movement of the analog stick.
Nifty, and at $12, cheap. Check
out http://www.truesteer.com
for more info. [*1©
HARDCORE
Back when I was 15, my kid
brother came to me with the
news that our next-door
neighbors were out for the
weekend. Being neighborly
and all, they had once given
their key to our parents “just
in case.” Normally, that
wouldn’t mean anything —
except that they had Super
Mario Brothers — on a
Nintendo system! It sure
beat playing Popeye on the
TI99/4a for the 800 th time.
So, we went over, let
ourselves in, and started
playing Mario. I was in
heaven — at least until we
heard their car pull in to the
driveway. We scrambled to
the front door, but couldn’t
figure out the locks — we
were trapped and caught. To
make matters worse, I lied
that we thought we saw
somebody walking around
inside the house, and that
we came over to investigate.
What an idiot! I think the
next few hours of watching
my mom pace back and
forth waiting for my dad to
come home were the
scariest hours of my life.
Needless to say, our
neighbors’ key was promptly
returned. My excuse: I
somehow knew, even then,
that it was important for my
future career!
Darren Johnson
Programmer, Star Wars:
Episode One Racer for N64
LucasArts Entertainment
Company
7~7/ rrij'aajig’
The TiltForce and TiltPack [left] add a new twist to control with high-
tech analog chips. The TrueSteer [right] is a decidedly low-tech solution
ARCADIA
BY MARCUS WEBB, EDITOR OF REPLAY MAGAZINE
PRE-ORDER FINAL FANTASY® VIII
and enter to win a fantastic ride!
NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. OFFER OPEN ONLY TO U.S. RESIDENTS PHYSICALLY LOCATED IN THE U.S. Four (4) grand prize winners will
each win one (1) Toyota® ECHO™ (approx, retail value: $10,000 each, not to exceed $12,000 each). Model version and features to be selected by sponsor and may vary from
depictions in advertisements. Prize winners will be randomly selected from all eligible entries received. Odds of winning depend on number of eligible entries received. Entry requires
proper completion and submission (as described in Official Rules) of mailed entry or official entry form. Contest period is from July 30,1999, to August 31,1999. Entries must be
received on or before August 31,1999. All winners will be selected by September 8,1999. Each winner will be required to sign a notarized affidavit of eligibility and release of liability
within 10 days of prize notification or prize. Any winner who fails to claim a prize by September 23,1999, or who fails to return a signed and notarized affidavit of eligibility and
release of liability within 10 days after notification, will forfeit the prize and another winner will be selected. All decisions of sponsors are final. By participating and winning a prize,
winner releases Sponsor and all participating sponsors from all liability with respect to any prize. Winners list available after October 7,1999 by sending a self-addressed,
stamped envelope (“SASE") to FINAL FANTASY Vlll-Toyota Giveaway Winners List, P.O. BOX 6006, Dept. K, MN 55319. CONTEST SUBJECT TO OFFICIAL RULES. For a complete
copy of Official Rules, including methods of entry, see in-store display or visit www.squaresoft.com.
<5QUARE<5<DFT
www.squaresoft.com
® TOYOTA
Actual prize vehicle may vary.
<4
PlayStation
electronics > Mfhtiu
G©173' f uneoLand
Bring Home The Fun'
Babbage's buV
NEDIA^PLAV
Your Entertainment Superstore
and other
participating
retailers
PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. © 1999 Square Co., Ltd. All rights reserved. SQUARE SOFT, SQUARESOFT and FINAL FANTASY are registered
trademarks of Square Co., Ltd. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All names and logos contained herein are the registered trademarks of their respective companies. All other copyrights and
trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
iinigfe
Qa$ffe$.
Joan of &vt .
uiuitti.micro5oftcora/,Barae5/aje2
Gaming
ZONE
Microsoft
BIG IN JAPAN
TTl eld in the Tokyo Ryutsu
-IU Center in April, Pokemon
Festival '99 attracted thousands of
rabid Pocket Monster fans. The
exhibition was split into four main
zones: Pokemon Snap, Pokemon
Stadium, Pokemon Pinball, and the
tournament area. Nintendo, for
whom the Pokemon phenomenon
has been a license to print money,
seized the opportunity to introduce
its latest titles, Pokemon Stadium
2, Pokemon Gold, and Pokemon
Silver. As you can imagine,
hundreds of dolls, trading cards,
scale models, and every other
conceivable Pokemon-related item
was also on display. The puffy little
monsters are already sapping the
collective will of kids across the
U.S., and their unabated popularity
in their home country could make
this the first generation of
monster-controlled mind
slaves on Earth.
Pokemon Festival '99 drew
thousands of mindless pocket-
monster drones from all over Japan
for contests and first looks at new
and ever-cuter Pokemon related
stuff of every description — hide'
your eyes from the flashing lights or
you too will be assimilated
Virtual High School
■jTl dding new meaning to the term "open source,"
a growing number of high school students
across Japan are jointly developing a networked,
persistent online world for PC. The unique, and
0 quintessential^ Japanese, spin on the idea is that the
game belongs in the same genre as the popular
Tokimeki Memorial series: a high-school simulator.
Featuring anime-style characters with 2D illustrations,
players can select either a male or female character
and enter the virtual high school, where they can
wander through classrooms, meet other students, and
interact with them in real time over the internet. The
development group ambitiously hopes to eventually
be able to host up to 8,000 players. Much like Linux
and other open source movements, however, the
software is free and under the development of
independent students who work together over the
Net. Why students who are actually in high school
would work so hard to spend their free time
pretending to be in high school is unknown. ROS
V w
■ ‘
Er W W
* V
vjr ’■
\
18
All over Japan, high-school students are
crowding around PCs to log onto the internet
and, um, pretending to be in high school
Tekken Tag Tournament
Ml
onths of rumors ended in May, when
Namco finally unveiled its latest Tekken
between them at any time during the fight using
an added fifth button. The catch? The loser is the
La Pochee
PlayStation
sequel: Tekken Tag Tournament. Running on
System 12, Tag Tournament is graphically similar
to Tekken 3, with many stages remaining
basically the same except for added lighting
effects. The Hong Kong stage, for example, is
now set at night under glaring neon.
Tag Tournament features all the characters
that have ever appeared in any previous arcade
or console version, but the game's most notable
new feature is a team battle mode similar to
that found in Marvel vs. Capcom. Players begin
by selecting two characters and can switch
first player to have either character's life gauge
rprli irprl tn 7Prn
Some upgrades have been made to the
characters, with slightly higher polygon counts
and smoother texturing, but after the difficulties
the company had in porting Tekken 3 to
PlayStation, many are wondering whether Tag
Tournament's multiple fighters will prove an
insurmountable hurdle to a PlayStation version.
Oddsmakers strongly favor Dreamcast or even
PlayStation 2 if and when Tag Tournament
ever comes to the home.
Tekken Tag Tournament
features every character
who's ever been in any
version of Tekken ever, a
number of which are "time
released" and won't be
available until after certain
dates — a ploy that's sure
to keep the faithful coming
back in the weeks ahead
< --io
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PlayStation
®
NINTENDO 64
u
slAllMYMENts
AIR ATTACK
Intense Helicopter Action
RARE’S
As Nintendo prepares for
DVD with Project
RIPLE THREAT
Dolphin, the cartridge
format passes from a
major delivery medium
to the Little League of
handheld systems. So
take a good hard look at
the three games to the
right: one of them may
be the last cartridge you
ever buy
The glorious age of the cartridge is ending, but not
before Rare delivers Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini,
and Donkey Kong 64 into the hands of N64 owners
later this year
Now faced with its last major holiday season for Nintendo 64,
Rare is once again stepping up to the plate with three of the most
important titles for Nintendo — Perfect Dark, Jet Force Gemini, and
Donkey Kong 64, all backed by multi-million-dollar marketing and sales
campaigns. Nintendo will be fighting for every sale as Sega rolls out
Dreamcast and its impressive launch lineup and PlayStation plays host
to big hitters like Dino Crisis. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and Gran Turismo 2.
If 1999 is going be Nintendo's biggest year without any help from a
Miyamoto-developed title — and it might be — the company is going to earn
every cent with these three games.
PERFECT DARK
Release Date: December 1999 Origin: U K.
GoldenEye was exceeded in sales
only by Mario 64, and there hasn't
been an announced Mario sequel yet.
And since the same team responsible
for GoldenEye 007 is responsible for
Perfect Dark, the game is sure to be
the Next Generation reader's most
anticipated N64 purchase this year.
Like GoldenEye, Perfect Dark puts
players in the first-person role of an
agent, but this time around, that
agent isn't James Bond, it's Joanna
Dark, and the year is 2023.
Despite the changes in character
and setting, the gameplay remains
akin to GoldenEye with the addition
of an x-Files twist. What begins as a
simple recon mission becomes
Joanna Dark's quest to uncover alien
races, corrupt corporations, and
global conspiracies. Bringing back the
best aspects of 007' s single and
multiplayer gameplay. Perfect Dark's
early levels already deliver
unrelenting action. In order to store
all 17 levels and extensive cut
scenes, the cartridge will be five
times the size of GoldenEye. But
don't judge the game just by the size
of the cartridge — much of the game
engine has been completely
reworked.
"Rare threw away everything
they didn't like about the GoldenEye
engine," says Nintendo's Ken Lobb.
"Which was a lot." While the team is
working on improving the framerate
and animation, what really stood out
in the E3 version of the game was
the Al: enemies now have the ability
to assess potential threats, find
cover, and execute long-range
teamwork.
Single-player Al isn't all that's
Like James Bond, Joanna Dark can wield more than one weapon simultaneously.
Forty new weapons will be available, including an arm-mounted crossbow and
an infrared, heat seeking-scope weapon called the Farsight, or deathmatch
players will come to know It. the 'camper-killer ...
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 I ■'
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
been improved, as the enhanced multiplayer
modes implement the use of bots, which
until now were only found in PC first-person
shooters. Single players can deathmatch with
up to seven bots, and four human players can
add another four bots for eight-player
deathmatches. And while it hasn't been
determined yet. Rare indicates the number of
bots could go as high as 14.
Perfect Dark's exact use of the
Expansion Pak has yet to be determined,
though it's likely to enhance lighting and
larger game environments. But the game's
real expansion comes in the form of
Nintendo's Transfer Pak. Utilizing this Transfer
Pak (shipping with Pokemon Stadium this
October) and the Game Boy Camera, players
can apply a Game Boy Camera picture to a
Perfect Dark deathmatch model, enabling you
to put your own face in the game — as well
as brighten, color, and stretch the image to
fit. With a small amount of practice, the
whole process takes less than a
minute. Once created, you can
save your character in the
flying
too
The future, according to Rare, will include
cars and rain. Maybe they've been watching
much Blade Runner...
cart or on a Controller Pak. (What Congress
will make of the ability to play with your
friends' pictures in deathmatch is
undetermined.)
Considering the fantastic combination of
stealthy single-player and multiplayer
gameplay Bond delivered back in August of
'97, we can't wait to lock, load, and sneak
around with Joanna Dark later this year.
JET FORCE GEM N
Maybe you've heard this
one before — defend the
Earth from the threat of an evil
warlord and his army of alien insects. Sure, it's
a story as old as Space Invaders itself, and Jet
Force Gemini does indeed hearken players
back to the days when players shot first and
asked questions later. One look at the graphics
in this sleeper from Rare, though, and you'll
know it's a '90s title.
Created by the same team responsible for
Blast Corps and Diddy Kong Racing, Jet Force is
part action, part adventure, and part puzzle¬
solving. Played out in epic form, the game
chronicles the journey of its three main
characters — Juno, Vela, and Lupus — through
intricately designed stages packed with
enemies at every turn.
Jet Force Gemini follows Rare's formula for
engrossing gameplay: delivering more than 120
stages with an average of 15 stages per level.
But it's more than just picking a character and
plugging away — to get the full experience of
Jet Force Gemini, players need to alternate
between all three characters in order to meet
the various objectives.
Of course you can't defeat an army of
insects without weapons, and players will have
access to more than 20, including homing
weapons, rapid-fire guns, and various
explosives. The arsenal will come in handy, as
the player will frequently be faced with more
than 20 enemies at once, a first for both 32-
and 64-bit systems. This, tied to the fact that
many areas are structured with patterned
attacks, really gives the game a strong feeling
of 16-bit action games like Gunstar Heroes and
Ninja Warriors.
24
Of course, like any good
action/platformer, the game will feature
plenty of secret zones and a two-player
cooperative mode where players can team up
and blast through levels. Beyond that, Jet
Force will include multiplayer deathmatch, a
top-down multiplayer race mode, and a
police-style trainer with pop-up targets.
The version shown to Next Generation
already exhibits brilliant textures and
wondrous landscapes that will make even PC
gamers envious. What is also impressive is that
the game wasn't running with the 4MB
Expansion Pak. whether or not the Pak even
helps will be revealed when the game ships
late this summer.
Don't let these
massive,
beautifully
textured indoor
and outdoor
areas fool you —
Jet Force is an
action game,
incorporating
numerous
weapons and
various modes of
gameplay
DONKEY KONG 64
Release Date: November 1999 Origin: U.K.
In order to make players more familiar with Joanna Dark
and her intriguing storyline. Rare has added intro and exit
cut sequences with extensive voiceovers. The intro [left] is
a long cinematic with Joanna dropping from a helicopter
onto the roof of a highrise building. Expect a whopping 90
minutes of cut scenes interspersed throughout the game
resulting in 200 total objectives. Just as in
previous Donkey Kong games, players will be
able to use Donkey Kong and Diddy Kong as
well as a cast of new characters including Tiny,
Chunky, and Lanky Kong. Each Kong will have its
own unique set of abilities that need to be
mastered in order to progress, and only certain
characters have been enabled with the skillset
to complete special tasks, that in turn, will open
new areas.
Yet even with the extra 4MB, the N64 is
showing its limitations. But Donkey Kong 64 will
likely prove innovation doesn't always require
new technology, just an imaginative designer.
Donkey Kong never looked or played better
then it already does here, as you can
probably imagine yourself.
NG SPECIAL
Donkey Kong's Last Stand
Back in 1994, when SNES was on its last legs,
Rare released Donkey Kong Country.
Showcasing a proprietary real-time 3D
technology called Advanced Computer
Modeling (ACM), Donkey Kong Country treated
players to unparalleled graphics and gameplay.
At the time, it quickly became one of the
fastest selling videogames in history, according
to NPD's TRSTS Video Games Tracking service,
Donkey Kong Country has sold through 2.75
million-3.25 million units since October of
1994. will DK 64 produce similar numbers for
N64? Time will tell.
Elements of Donkey Kong Country such as
shooting characters through barrels and
driving a mine cart on broken tracks have all
made it into the N64 version of the game,
although on a much larger 3D scale
Since Nintendo 64's release, every key Nintendo
franchise — with the notable exception of
Metroid — has jumped to 64-bit — Zelda,
F-Zero, and, of course, Mario. Now, after much
delay, Donkey Kong makes its way to Nintendo
64. Secretly in development for close to four
years, Donkey Kong 64 is one of the biggest
games ever created for the system. Fully
incorporating the 4MB Expansion Pak, which
will be required to play the game. Donkey Kong
64 boasts massive environments, phenomenal
graphics, and unprecedented gameplay.
While previous Donkey Kong games were
very linear, Donkey Kong 64 enables players to
take many paths to complete the game. Donkey
Kong 64 only has eight levels, but each presents
five goals for each of the five characters,
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
it’s thinking I
sega.com
Resident Evil 3 PlayStation Ready 2 Rumble Dreamcast The Sims PC
F355 Challenge Arcade Vigilante S Dreamcast Soldier of Fortune PC
ALPHAS
The cream of the crop from developers far and near
□ ere's a change: Dreamcast is now
included with our regular preview
coverage. The most advanced console on the
market has some tasty games coming, but
then so do PlayStation and PC. Read on...
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
PlayStation
28
F355 challenge
Arcade
32
ecco the Dolphin
Dreamcast
34
Hydro Thunder
Dreamcast
36
Blitz 2000
Dreamcast
37
Ready 2 Rumble
Dreamcast
38
Battlezone II
PC
40
Jet MOtO 3
PlayStation
41
vigilante 8
Dreamcast
44
Toy commander
Dreamcast
46
Die Hard Trilogy 2
PlayStation, PC
48
The Sims
PC
52
Jump Runner
PC/DC
54
Fear Factor
PlayStation
55
Soldier of Fortune
PC
56
Evolva
PC
58
Hostile waters
PC
60
Army Men Air Attack
PlayStation
61
SWAT 3
PC
62
Crusaders of Might and Magic
PlayStation
63
Genesis: Aperian 7
PC
64
San Francisco Rush 2049
Arcade
66
MILESTONES
MESSIAH
PC
69
BATTLETANX 2
Nintendo 64 70
SACRIFICE
PC
70
EXCITEBIKE 64
Nintendo 64 70
COMMAND S CONQUER
Nintendo 64 70
NHL FACEOFF 2000
PlayStation
71
BASS LANDING
PlayStation
71
GAMEDAY 2000
PlayStation
71
WWF
Nintendo 64 71
27
http://www.next-generation.com
\%~%m
PLAYSTATION
NG ALPHAS
Backgrounds are far more
detailed than in the previous
games and involve the player
more than ever before. Even
with all of the extras like
dripping water and the erupting
fire hydrant, the load times are
faster than they have ever been
for a game of this type
RESIDENT EVIL 3: NEMESIS
This experts-only Evil proves there's still plenty of life left in zombie hunting
FORMAT
PlayStation
PUBLISHER
_ Capcom
DEVELOPER
_ Capcom
RELEASE DATE
November 1999
ORIGIN
_ japan
- elcome back to the city of the
damned, in the three years since
the smashing success of Resident Evil,
there have been a rash of survival-
horror games rushed to market.
However, while a couple of notable
efforts like Silent Hill and Clock Tower
may have managed to add their own
wrinkles to the genre, none has proven
it can match the intensity of the
Resident Evil series — with the
exception of Resident Evil Producer
Shinji Mikami's own Dino Crisis (NG 54).
And, as the series enters its third
installment, therein lies the problem:
since Dino Crisis is so fresh and looks
so formidable, can the aging saga of
Resident Evil keep up? The answers lie
inside Raccoon City, where Jill valentine
(co-star of the original Resident Evil)
returns.
The story picks up where the
original Resident Evil left off, but only
hours before the events in Resident Evil
2. Jill Valentine, having retired from the
S.T.A.R.S. team, is heading out of town
when she is once again trapped as
Raccoon City begins crawling with the
Umbrella Corporation's flesh-eating
spawn. Although Jill remains the central
character, players will switch at certain
times to the role of Carlos Oliveira, a
hot-blooded former employee of the
Umbrella Corporation, who has gone in
to recover survivors. At times, players
will also be forced to make decisions
that branch the game off into
subquests. (The game's replayability will
come in exploring the other branches.)
Next Generation's build of the game
stars Jill, but it doesn't necessarily begin
at the beginning of the game: Jill has
already acquired a handgun, and the city
is swarming with zombies. We took
comfort in finding all the familiar items
— ammo, a shotgun, healing herbs,
healing spray, save ribbons, equipment
chests, a lighter, and (ahem) a lock pick
— and put them to good use. The
environments will also certainly be
familiar to those who survived RE2, and
the city streets and tight alleyways are
again littered with flesh-eaters. Players
will even venture back inside the
Raccoon City Police Department for
some answers.
Although Dino Crisis has upgraded
to fully 3D environments, Resident Evil
3 maintains the same pre-rendered
backgrounds of the series, but the RE3
team has made the world noticeably
crisper and cleaner than previous
efforts, thanks in part to using a higher
resolution. The camera placement has
also been improved — it's subtle, but
you don't feel as removed from the
action as you could at times in the
other games.
The puzzles are better, too. In many
instances, progress still requires finding
the keys to open doors, but not every
door is controlled by a shiny little key.
At first, Jill only meets
people who are running
for their lives, but then
she meets up with a
S.T.A.R.S. team member
who warns her that
Nemesis is methodically
hunting the team
members down
29
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION Migust 1999
PLAYSTATION
The zombie count has been increased
significantly so no matter where you
are, you are surrounded by flesh-eating
minions of the undead
While the previous RE games have been bloody, RE3 takes it to a
whole new extreme. When shot, zombies explode into bloody
chunks that fly across the room and bounce on the floor
30
zombies feel no pain,
so a handgun isn't as
effective as you might
think. Shoot them in the
chest and you'll only
knock them back some
— the best strategy is
to shoot them in the
head or legs
Some can only be opened with the right
tools, and some require combinations.
Unlike some of the odd puzzles from
past games (remember starting the fire
to melt the painting to obtain the jewel
in RE21), the puzzles here make sense,
blending harmoniously with the player's
quest to get the hell out of Dodge ... er,
Raccoon.
And Raccoon City has never been
more frightening. Mikami's huge team of
50 has created an even more terrifying
atmosphere than before. Continued
improvements and the tweaking of the
engine have enabled the team to really
up the quality of the character models,
and the characters are now skinned for
a smoother look. This adds to the
zombie models tremendously — not
only are they better looking, but we've
counted as many as six onscreen at one
time. There's also wider variety of
zombies: you'll see fat ones, short ones,
and both male and female zombies, all
in various stages of decay, which lends
more credibility to the scenario (and
lessens any redundancy you might have
felt after killing the same zombie model
26 times).
Did we mention the zombies also
now have better Al? Zombies will now
come onto stairways after you, tracking
you more realistically, and each zombie
moves at its own speed. Occasionally a
really maneuverable one will come at a
surprising pace, which is guaranteed to
raise your blood pressure a little. At
other times, what may look like a corpse
will get off the ground to surprise you.
But what really increases the fear
and dread you'll feel playing the game is
Nemesis. This mysterious hulking
menace stalks Jill multiple times over
the course of the game. S.T.A.R.S. Pilot
Brad Vickers, who has a minor role in
the game, hints during a cut scene that
Nemesis is specifically hunting
S.T.A.R.S. team members. Unlike the
when Nemesis bursts
through the window
behind you armed with a
bazooka, there is only one
thing you can do — run!
Panic stricken, you must
make your way back
through the station
before Nemesis grinds
you to a pulp
Think fast! When zombies
come bursting through a
police barrier, there isn't
time to engage them at
close range without
getting mauled. Your only
chance is to use your
wits and back off so that
they can be taken out by
an exploding barrel
Capcom has expanded the world to
offer the player many more choices in
navigating the city. The game is being
designed for hardcore Resident Evil fans,
and while it will be harder, a new
"action" button enables players to
dodge or tackle enemies, and the
addition of a quick 180° spin move
should also prove handy.
You'll need all the help you can get:
while other companies are working to
tailor their games for the new mass
market, Mikami himself has intimated
that this is to be a game for expert
Resident Evil players only. The faster,
smarter zombies and the threat of
Nemesis mean you'll have to move
faster and think faster to beat the game.
As he does in the forthcoming Dino
Crisis, Mikami keeps the feeling of the
RE3 is made for advanced players, so there are more moments of blind
panic to deal with when a bloody zombie bursts in on you or a dog
jumps out of the darkness, cutting off your only means of escape
relatively slow and mindless zombies,
Nemesis relentlessly chases the player,
if his ominous, leather-clad presence
suddenly crashing through a window
isn't enough to scare you, this
behemoth carries a bazooka, which he
shoots accurately, and he also delivers
powerful hand-to-hand blows.
But it's more than just the zombies
and the ruthless Nemesis that help
create the scary atmosphere. The new
music and sound effects are beautifully
composed and wondrously integrated.
The haunting soundtrack blends with
the rustling wind to instill a feeling of
isolation. When in the course of
exploration you finally hear the cries of
human voices, it is often too late,
voiceover acting in the cut scenes is
noticeably improved over previous
entries in the series, and the fantastic
audio cues remain intact.
Still, while the city, zombies, and
many items look familiar, don't bet on
the game playing the same way. Straight
off the bat, the maps in Resident Evil 3
are far more complex; the team at
While the city, zombies, and many items
will look familiar, don’t bet on the game
playing the same way
living world in Resident Evil 3 by
scattering random animations
throughout the environment. Certain
areas will crackle with wildfire, and on
one street, a fire hydrant spraying
water shows off particle-system
effects. Mikami's ingenuity brings life to
the game even though the hardware is
clearly aging. And while we wait
patiently for glimpses of Claire
Redfield's next adventure on
Dreamcast, from what Mikami's given
us so far of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis,
we won't mind waiting.
As you make your way
through Raccoon City,
you will hear the
citizenry cry out for help
as they are attacked,
invariably, you are too
late, and the zombies are
already having a feast
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
ARCADE
NG ALPHAS
F355 CHALLENGE
One of the most realistic racing sims ever to hit the arcade? Wonder who that's from...
32
□ o say that AM2's Yu Suzuki is a car
nut is like saying the Pacific is a
"big" ocean. The man who gave the world
Virtua Fighter has also consistently been
at the forefront of racing design at least as
far back as Hang On in '85 and, of course,
Out Run in '86.
F355 Challenge has been
conscientiously designed from the ground
up to be the ultimate in arcade racing
realism, in designing it, Suzuki worked
closely with actual Ferrari designers, who
shared proprietary information and obliged
the Challenge team with performance
trials to collect as much data for the
physics engine as possible. He also
F355 Challenge has been conscientiously
designed from the ground up to be the
ultimate in arcade racing realism
conducted interviews with a number of
other Ferrari drivers — and it should be
pointed out that he rather famously owns
a number of them himself.
The result is shaping up to be an
arcade machine that's about as close to
the real thing as you can get without
shelling out a couple of hundred grand.
The cabinet is modeled after the one used
for Lost World — totally enclosed, with a
FORMAT
Arcade
PUBLISHER
AM2
DEVELOPER
Sega
RELEASE DATE
Summer 2000
ORIGIN
Japan
The graphics (currently
about 70% complete)
are well on par with what
we've come to expect from
a Naomi-powered title —
and remember, F355 uses
three Naomi boards
speaker on either side of the player's
head. Three separate Naomi boards run
three different screens, one for the front
view, and one for each side, so you can
see opposing cars approaching and
attempting to pass.
Much like AM2's previous Super GT,
headed by Toshishiro Nagoshi, Suzuki's
F355 Challenge is less about the thrill of
blowing by every other car on the track,
and more about learning the intricacies of
competition driving and optimizing your
own performance. The game offers three
skill levels — novice, intermediate, and
simulator — each of which is designed to
not only accommodate the relative skill of
the player, but also to teach you how to
drive better.
in novice level, the computer handles
shifting and also oversees four other
functions: Stability Control (adjustment to
Although they don't have
anything to do with
gameplay, the
introductory teaser
screens crackle along and
do a nice job of setting
the mood
ARCADE
Since F355 uses three display screens, you can look to the side and
actually see cars trying to pass — important information when you
can win or lose by tenths of a second
NG ALPHAS
The game debuted at the
"Sega Private Show" in May,
introduced by Suzuki himself.
The prototype cabinet had all
three screens but lacked the
final version's outer casing
• • $
The feeling of speed is palpable at times, especially considering that
the cabinet is dark and you've got speakers blaring in your ears
After each race, the
game prints a summary
of your performance
steering during corners), Traction Control
(adjustment to the spoiler controls tire
grip), ABS (antilock braking), and IBS
(intelligent braking, which automatically
brakes during a curve). A panel onscreen
shows an icon for each system, which
lights up when it's activated to give the
player feedback on their driving technique
— brake here, take the curve a little less
hard there. Intermediate level enables a
High/Low gearshift, and the IBS is turned
off, while simulator level requires using all
six gears and disables all assistance.
In addition, there are three modes of
play, all of which can be accessed at any
skill level: training mode, free run, and
race. Training mode shows the right "line"
to take on a track and gives advice on
when to brake and shift. Free run simply
puts you on the track alone, while race
mode pits you against eight other cars. To
measure your performance, the cabinet
will even make of printout giving your
time, engine RPM, and gear changes over
the course of the race; the percent of the
race you held the proper line; and other
data, which you can use to gauge your
skill and compare with other players.
F355 will offer five different authentic
circuits — Motegi, Monza, Sugo, Suzuka,
and Long Beach — all of which have been
accurately modeled. Even the spectators
in the crowd are fully 3D and animated,
replacing the 2D bitmaps that usually
make up the crowd in a racing game.
F355 will offer five different authentic
circuits — Motegi, Monza, Sugo, Suzuka,
and Long Beach
F355 Challenge is certainly one of the
most ambitious arcade racers ever
attempted. It's certain to catch on in
Japan, where Yu Suzuki's celebrity status
and the obsessive nature of Japanese
arcade-goers almost guarantee a loyal
following. With the growing popularity of
upscale arcades in the U.S. like Dave &
Busters and Sega's own Gameworks, it
may very well find a home here as well.
Now all we need is a Dreamcast
version.
33
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ i ^ ki ll 0 _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
o
DREAMCAST
NG ALPHAS
ECCOTHE DOLPHIN-
DEFENDER OF THE FUTURE
The elegant, lethal, and loveable hero will make a splashing
return to the gaming world next spring — can he still make waves?
34
FORMAT
Dreamcast
PUBLISHER
Sega
DEVELOPER
Appaloosa Interactive
RELEASE DATE
Ql 2000
ORIGIN
Hungary/U.S.
ppaloosa's first Dreamcast title was
shown as a self-running demo at
this year's E3, but it showed more promise
than many playable games presented at
the show. While Ecco is known best for his
16-bit debut on Genesis, he last appeared
on Sega CD and never made it to the
doomed Saturn. Perhaps Sega was wise to
let this aquatic hero skip a generation — if
Appaloosa can stay its course with the
Ecco franchise, it will impress even the
most fervent skeptics among gamers.
The game is set in a universe
somewhat similar to its 16-bit versions, as
the player controls Ecco in a fully 3D
undersea environment rendered
realistically by the Dreamcast hardware.
Producer Gergely Csaszar calls it "mainly
an adventure game with action elements.
It is not 'stage-based' but more of a huge
underwater and above-water world
created to be explored by the player."
The game will be subdivided into four
distinct areas (the first being "Paradise
island," the others created around widely
different themes and settings), each
consisting of physical areas that you can
travel freely in between. The world is being
created using Appaloosa's proprietary
Game world Builder technology, a realtime
3D-environment simulating tool running
under Windows. The program allows
designers to build and populate the game
areas using a drag-and-drop interface.
"[it's] similar to how you put Lego
pieces together," Csaszar says, "except
that here, you drag and drop 'living
creatures' rather than plastic blocks."
The character models of Ecco and
the other sea creatures are solid
representatives of Dreamcast's power. The
dolphin's body, for instance, is so smooth
that it seems to consist of only one
"building block." It's virtually impossible to
distinguish any joints, edges, or even
polygons on the models. The
programmers at Appaloosa's Hungarian
studio have created a skeletal animation
engine that simulates a bone structure
complete with joints, muscles, and a
smooth skin surface. Appaloosa is paying
particular attention to enabling the player
These whales are actually
much bigger than Ecco
but are located in the
distance. Are the days of
pop-up finally over?
The importance of getting air — an important strategic element in the Genesis/Sega CD versions — has yet to be decided
to combine all available movements
seamlessly. This intuitive gameplay will
allow the player to perform creative
acrobatics below and above the water
surface.
Ecco is aimed at two target
audiences: the hardcore gamer who will
focus on the game's action and
adventure elements, and the casual
gamer or non-gamer, who, Csaszar says,
"will be attracted to the dolphin and the
huge, beautiful underwater world." There
will also be a "recording option" with
which players can record their swimming
and acrobatic skills on the VMS, then play
it back later like a program on the
Discovery channel.
As in the original versions, the game
will emphasize verbal communication
between dolphins (the developer opted
for subtitles to accompany animal
sounds) and other benevolent creatures.
Gameplay will also involve many chases
and underwater fights, and unlike Soldier
of Fortune (see page 56), it won't end in
blood and gore.
In another surprising move,
Appaloosa has hired sci-fi author David
Brin to flesh out the story for Ecco. (Brin
wrote the book that the Costner film The
Postman was based on and has optioned
his novel Startide Rising to Paramount.)
Fittingly, Brin captures the essence of
Ecco when he says: "I think Ecco's a
character as brash and heroic as any
you'll find. If we Earthlings (human and
dolphin) ever get into real trouble, I sure
hope Ecco will be around to save our
skins."
Well, entertaining Dreamcast
gamers will be enough for now. K©
Players can make a recording of their
swimming and acrobatic skills, then play it back
later like a program on the Discovery Channel
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
DREAMCAST
NG ALPHAS
HYDRO THUNDER
I Near arcade perfect, and just in time for launch
Every track is filled with
personality and tiny
details to uncover
With more than a dozen
vehicles and tracks, there
is plenty of depth to the
racing experience
FORMAT
Dreamcast
PUBLISHER
Midway
DEVELOPER
Eurocom
RELEASE DATE
September 9, 1999
ORIGIN
LLS.
Some of the drops in the game are truly insane; we wonder whether or
not the track designers from SF Rush: The Rock had a hand in them
respects. The sense of speed and tight
physics are all in place, and graphics are
on par with the original. Several new
tracks are planned for Dreamcast, but
exactly what can be added is limited by
the short lead time available before the
system launch. Everything standard must
be done before these extras can be
considered. What's most notably missing
in the port is the four-player link-up, which
has been replaced by an adequate (but far
There are plenty of death-defying jumps,
hidden secrets, and quirky little touches of
humor that give the game life
less exciting) split-screen two-player
mode.
With only a few months to go, we
hope the development team manages to
find time to squeeze in the extras to
differentiate the home version from the
arcade. But even if they don't, the game
will make a solid addition to Dreamcast's
burgeoning launch lineup as an
example of its arcade power.
idway has been bullish in recent
years about porting its hot arcade
properties to the home, so it's no surprise
that Hydro Thunder will be one of the first
titles on Dreamcast. We've played near¬
final builds of the game, and we're happy
to report that unless something terrible
happens in the last few weeks of
development, the port will be almost
arcade perfect, with no loss in graphic
detail or game quality. On the other hand,
we are a bit dismayed by the fact that
there seem to be few extra modes on top
of what the arcade has to offer.
For those who haven't been fortunate
enough to play the addictive arcade game,
Hydro Thunder is a high-speed boat-racing
game set in the near future: think SF Rush
on water. Tracks range from the beautiful
and serene Grand Canyon to a dark and
desolate vision of post-apocalyptic New
York. And, just like Rush, there are plenty
of death-defying jumps, hidden secrets,
and quirky touches of humor that give the
game life.
The version we've played already
lives up to its arcade counterpart in most
DREAMCAST
NG ALPHAS
BLITZ 2000
Can Blitz 2000 go deep enough to ensure victory on Dreamcast?
Recreate the drama and
horror of Garrison
Hearst's leg breaking
FL Blitz can be described as a
monster hit for Midway. With five
versions already on the market (two
arcade and three home versions),
however, the license is perilously close
to following its spiritual predecessor
NBA Jam down the road to
overexposure and obsolescence, with
NFL Blitz 2000 just around the corner for
Dreamcast, can Midway prove it can
keep its franchise alive without falling to
the plague of redundancy?
While graphics aren't everything,
Midway is counting on the fact that Blitz
2000 is visually identical (complete with
m
a 60fps frame rate) to the arcade version
of Blitz '99 to sell a lot of copies. Of
course, in the yearly update, the front
end has been changed around a bit, but
there isn't anything that fans won't be
comfortable with. The biggest change in
the 2000 version is in the play selection,
which has been upgraded substantially.
It is now possible to customize your
playbook of 27 plays by choosing from
45 pre-made plays or some that you've
created yourself with the built-in
offensive and defensive play editors. Add
to all this the fact that each team will
have its own customized playbook fitting
its style of play, and there is suddenly
some new depth for players to explore.
In addition, the teams will be
updated to reflect the upcoming
season's rosters. Not stopping there,
Midway has also tweaked many of the
star players so that they reflect more of
their unique abilities in the game. For
example, use Deion Sanders and you'll
have a speed advantage over the
standard players.
If Midway can continue to deepen
its arcade conversions with these kinds
of features, usually reserved for EA
Sports titles, the company may be the
first since 989 Studios to challenge EA's
golden headlock on the world of
console sports games.
The best part of
Blitz 2000 is its
complete ignorance
of any penalties
FORMAT
Dreamcast
PUBLISHER
Midway
DEVELOPER
Avalanche
RELEASE DATE
September 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
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37
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
Special moves round out
the boxers' arsenal, and
while many are slow, they
do lots of damage
The characters have lots of
on-screen personality, but if
you're cocky enough to use
your taunts, you can expect
to get clocked
38
READY 2 RUMBLE
I Don't call it a comeback — Midway's gonna knock you out
FORMAT
Dreamcast, PSX, N 64
PUBLISHER
Midway
DEVELOPER
Midway (Dreamcast
version only)
RELEASE DATE
Sept. 9,1999 (Dreamcast)
ORIGIN
U.S.
oxing games are few and far
between — and given recent
efforts on PlayStation like Contender and
Knockout Kings, that's probably been a
good thing, instead of re-creating the fun
and excitement of the sport, most recent
games have been slow and boring.
Midway is poised to buck this trend
with its first original title for Dreamcast
(soon to be ported to PlayStation and
N64). Ready 2 Rumble breaks all recent
boxing-game tradition: it's fast, it's fun,
and it looks great, with the humor of
PunchOut! and the depth of a 3D fighter.
Dave Wagner, software engineer and
co-designer on R2R, says that it's all in the
basic design. "We looked at current
boxing games, and we were a little
disappointed," he admits as he points out
the poor control and slow gameplay
problems that have plagued recent
attempts in the category, "instead of
approaching the game as a sim, we
approached it as an arcade fighting game
off the bat. we started off with the idea of
Tekken because we like the speed and
game style."
The fighting-game influences are
obvious when you first pick up the
controller — the fighters dance around
the ring with a speed reminiscent of Tobal
2, and when you hit the buttons, you're
instantly rewarded by a flurry of painful-
looking hits. Players can execute
combinations by chaining different
punches together, and there are also
variety of special punches that are
executed by combining certain pad
movements with button combinations.
Another aspect the team has taken
from fighting games is the diverse rogues'
gallery of characters. Each fighter has a
unique personality and is meticulously
detailed down to the smallest facial
features (which change in-game to reflect
damage done), in addition to differences
in speed and power, fighting styles
dramatically differ from fighter to fighter,
varying from kung fu boxing (think Bruce
Lee without the kicks) to traditional styles
found in real life.
One issue the team has had to
address, however, is the lack of moves
inherent in boxing compared to a
ftj IDWAY
DC/PSX/N64
NG ALPHAS
Boxers are not only distinguished by size, weight, and look, but also
by their unique fighting styles. Mastering each fighter's unique feel
(such as the kung-fu action pictured above) is critical to being able to
use them effectively in the ring. And unlike many boxing games, you
can't bring all of the skills you learn on one boxer to another
when characters get hit
they react appropriately,
snapping their heads
back and bruising. Over
time, you can get so
battered that your face
is a real mess
traditional fighting game. Wagner says his
team hasn't found this to be a problem, "it
makes the game tighter," he explains.
"Now we can concentrate on punching
without worrying about kicking and
fireballs." In fact, Wagner argues, with the
ability to block, bob, weave, and jump
back, the gameplay is actually deeper
than any fighting game on the market.
While we wouldn't want to be in the room
while Wagner argues this point with a die¬
hard Virtua Fighter fan, after some
extended bouts with the game, we can't
deny that there's an incredible amount of
depth hidden just below the surface of
the seemingly-simple interface.
Besides the action in the ring, the
game also features an ambitious
management mode which puts even its
more sim-like competition down for the
ten count. As a manager of fighters, you
are given a certain amount of money with
which you can sign prospects and build a
gym for them to train in. After picking
your training equipment, you actually
participate in several related sub-games
to make your boxers better before you
schedule their fights. Each duel can either
be for ranking or money — both of which
are equally important, because to win the
game you must have all three title belts at
one time with boxers you control. If you
don't balance your resources carefully,
you may be forced to re-sign your
boxers at much higher rates or, even
Unlike the current crop of boxing games,
there is an incredible amount of depth
behind the seemingly-simple interface
worse, lose them altogether.
At this point, it looks like Midway's
choice to gamble on R2R as a release title
will pay off in spades, its graphical flair
never overshadows its deep gameplay,
and it is one of the few truly original titles
coming out this year to make Dreamcast
shine, if the frenzied reaction at E3 and in
the Next Generation offices is any
gauge of the title's future success,
Midway has a monster hit on its hands —
and possibly the beginings of a franchise.
We won't be surprised if we're previewing
Ready 2 Rumble: Hockey this time
next year...
39
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC
NG ALPHAS
A cleaner, easier-to-use interface has been implemented
40
BATTLEZONE II
I Will the sequel to Battlezone be the break-out hit the original wasn't?
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
Activision
DEVELOPER
Pandemic Studios
RELEASE DATE
August
ORIGIN
(IS.
hile last year's Battlezone remake
pushed the emerging action/
realtime strategy genre into the
spotlight, there weren't as many takers
as Activision had hoped. Fortunately for
the company, there's a chance this
refined sequel can change all that.
The story advances the game to
modern day, after the NSDF and CCA
(enemies in the first game) have allied to
form the International Space Defense
Force, monitoring the remaining alien
technology. After picking up some weird
messages from space, "you're part of
the elite ISDF force sent out to see
what's up," says Pandemic CEO Andrew
Goldman. "On the front lines of the
battlefield, you'll combat the revived
alien technology, but you'll need to play
to figure out who's behind it all."
The vehicular-based gameplay
features two campaigns and is spread
across six intergalactic worlds, but
running around on the open battlefields
will take a more prominent role. Once
again, players can exit their vehicles to
snipe enemies, but now it's on living
battlefields, where the alien wildlife is
prone to attacking the player. To wit, the
designers have implemented new
handheld weapons and power-ups such
as bazookas and jet-packs to tempt
players out of their vehicles.
But it's the new robust physics
engine that really enhances gameplay.
The hover vehicles, walkers, and treaded
vehicles already have extremely distinct
physics characteristics, and even
vehicles from within the same family will
have their own unique modeling. These
physics additions don't just add to the
action, according to Goldman — they
also add to the strategy.
"If you are on an island, it would be
foolish to build up a lot of treaded
vehicles because they can't cross the
water," says Goldman. "Or you may want
to destroy a bridge spanning a canyon to
prevent everything but flying units from
getting to your base."
With the core technology in place
from the first game, the Battlezone II
focus has been on the gameplay. if
Pandemic nails it (we're thinking it
might), and the buzz gets out, a lot more
people may (deservedly so) see this
sequel than saw the first
Battlezone.
The game features 30
unique units including
tanks, infantry, air
support, mobile assault
turrets, and one of
Director George Collins'
favorites — the kamikaze¬
like Mortarbike
The fact that your bike
hovers means that you
can drive over any
surface, land or water.
Different terrains and
catching air change the
"feeling" between your
bike and the ground
This desert landscape is reminiscent of
Episode l: Racer. The game evokes that
title's sense of speed, too
JETM0T03
1 Can a new developer bring the speed back to this rocketbike racing series?
FORMAT
PlayStation
PUBLISHER
989 Studios
DEVELOPER
Pacific Coast
Power and Light
RELEASE DATE
Q3 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
et Moto has been a PlayStation
stalwart since November 1996,
when Singletrac and Sony launched the
first version. Ostensibly an answer to
Nintendo's groundbreaking wave Race, Jet
Moto broke its own ground, bringing an
entirely new racing experience to
PlayStation that combined speed, stunts,
and jumping in a way that was not only
accessible, but utterly absorbing.
Newcomer developer Pacific Coast
Power and Light (also working on THQ's
Road Rash 64) has started this third
version from scratch, and while it's
clearly a continuation of the series, the
new engine brings with it a technological
boost and adds features.
"The graphics are a lot better than
in One or Two," says Lead Programmer
Eu-Ming Lee, explaining that new
dynamic lighting, colored fog, and
particle system effects will be used. And,
Lee adds, "the game runs faster, and as a
result, plays faster."
Undoubtedly, as Jet 3 will likely be
locked in at 30fps. With the faster pace,
the game expands on the huge stunts and
floating jumps of previous games, and
brings with it a more visceral racing
experience, accentuating tight turns and
fast straights.
"We've also added the bunny hop,"
Lee explains, "and for certain terrain, it's
helpful for you to hop over small
obstacles. A little hop prevents you from
slowing down as much as you do when
you catch air. it's new, and it makes this
version feel different."
There are 16 tracks to choose from
initially, with one-player practice, single
race, and season modes as well as a two-
player head-to-head mode. Jet Moto 3
also features a freestyle stunt mode that
becomes accessible to players who
successfully complete the season mode
on expert level.
Considering they started without one
line of code, the team has built a
competitive product late in PlayStation's
lifecycle, and hopefully the team can put
the same polish into the final gameplay.
With WipeOut 3 and numerous other
racers preparing for fall releases,
it's going to need every edge.
Environments change
rather dramatically —
a downtown view
[top] actually ends up
in a subway
41
A *Jg|st,; 1999 __ http://www.next-generation.com
lungifi Software, the company that rewrote the rules for strategy games with Myth and Myth II
I introduces Dni, an
action game that will redefine the genre. As Konoko, you'll fight through hugi
futuristic 3D environments using a ground-breaking combination of gunplay and hand-to-hand
combat to defeat hundreds of devious opponents. From your first bullet to your last kick, surviving
Dni's high-tech world of crime and deception will take everything you've got.
Coming this Fall for Windows and Mac OS. r^i iiy
For screen shots and additional information visit oni.bungie.com I EH
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
N64/PSX/DC
NG ALPHAS
VIGILANTE 8: SECOND OFFENSE
'70s muscle cars take on some bad muthas from the future? Darn straight
FORMAT
N64, PlayStation, DC
PUBLISHER
Activision
DEVELOPER
Luxoflux
RELEASE DATE
Fall 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
The PSX version has 2-
player head to head,
but for 4-player action
you'll need a DC or N64
A Pinto is hardly the car we'd want to
be strapped into during a firefight
□ igilante 8 was originally conceived
as a console version of interstate
76, but it played much more like Twisted
Metal than its PC brethren. This shake-up
in gameplay gave V8 a wider audience as
console fans snatched it up looking for
something to fill the void in car-combat
releases. Now, over a year later, the
developers at Luxoflux are hard at work on
the sequel, which already looks promising.
One area where V8 didn't follow in
Twisted Metal's footsteps was in its
storyline, which actually had some
purpose, in V8: Second Offense, also, story
matters: the game picks up the thread of
Slick Clyde after his triumph in the first
game. Clyde has taken control of the
world's oil supply through his affiliation
with the evil corporation OMAR, which
means that he rules the world with the
exception of the United States. The game
then fast-forwards to the future, in which a
70-year-old Clyde, infuriated by his inability
to take over the U.S., steals a time
machine so that he can go back to 1977
and take revenge on the Vigilantes.
"This gives us the ability to stay in the
70s and keep the 70s vibe," explains
Peter Morawiec, creative director at
Luxoflux. "But we can also bring in all
these modern things without being tied
down to 70s technology." This new-age
technology is readily apparent from the
car selection screen, which contains such
vehicles as a hovercar and a futuristic
three-wheeled cycle. (Fans of the original
need not worry: there is also a heavy mix
of seventies vehicles like a Pacer and an
El-Camino-esque vehicle.)
Luxoflux is determined to do this
sequel right. While the theme of the game
may be the same, everything has been
changed around. "We're trying for more
variety in the sorts of cars so it's not just
four-wheeled vehicles," stresses Morawiec
as he demos such new vehicles as a semi
with a trailer (watch out for jackknifing)
and a six-wheeled buggy with four-wheel
steering. Among the 18 vehicles, none are
repeats from the first game — and while
some of the old characters will make
appearances, they will all be in new cars.
One area that hasn't been changed
much is the rock-solid gameplay of the
first game. There is only one new regular
weapon, a flamethrower, and the biggest
change appears to be that all of the
weapons have a new secret attack to
bring the total of each one to three. "I
think the core remains essentially the
same," admits Morawiec when confronted
with the fact that the gameplay has stayed
A lunar explorer fighting a Town Car? it seems strange to us that a
group from the future wouldn't rather have a tank
The N64 version is a little less detailed
than its brethren, but the gameplay is
just as solid
so close to the original — but given the
quality of the first, we can see why the
team is happy with the way the game is
going. The biggest gameplay change is the
addition of three ways to "transform" your
car to better fit your environment. Pick up
the correct power-up and you can add skis
to your car for the snow, propellers and
floats for the water, and some hoverjets to
take to the air.
The only area that has been
significantly changed from the first
(besides the entirely original array of
vehicles and arenas) is the structure of the
quests. Level locations now span the
entire country and take place anywhere
from the bayou to the desert. Goals have
been enhanced so that now there can be
several different waves of enemies to
fight. You might even have to assist NPCs
or defend a convoy.
Of course it goes without saying that,
with the Dreamcast version in the works,
this will be the most spectacular-looking
car-combat game yet. Surprisingly,
however, there have been advancements
on the PlayStation and N64 versions of the
games that bring them up to the
The single-player game is
much more plot driven
than its predecessor
It goes without saying that the Dreamcast
version of V8 will be the most spectacular¬
looking car-combat game yet
standards considered to be "state of the
art." Especially cool for the hyper¬
observant are all of the little details that
are already in the game like brake lights,
smoke from squealing tires, and some
nice specular highlighting on the cars.
There are still a few months left
before the game debuts, and the nine-
man team at Luxoflux is already crunching
to make sure that all three versions come
out close to each other. With little in the
way of competition this holiday season, it
looks like the second offense will
be just as strong as the first.
DC/PC
NG ALPHAS
TOY COMMANDER
I No Cliche's first Dreamcast title could prove to be this year's most refreshing
the house with hordes of plastic
soldiers, planes, ships, and other toys
going berserk.
You must restore order to seven
areas of the house, and each area
features six missions. The 42 missions
will range from rather straightforward
car races to strategic and action-packed
military missions. In certain missions, the
player will need to steer an unarmed
truck through big constructs and
The conflict arises when the boy’s
teddy bear decides to challenge the
boy’s position as “toy commander”
The soldiers will be able to perform group attacks and tactical
maneuvers — the defenseless truck must be both protected and
steered out of trouble
FORMAT
Dreamcast/PC
PUBLISHER
Sega
DEVELOPER
No Cliche
RELEASE DATE
September 1999/ Q1 2000
ORIGIN
France
hen Sega bought Adeline Software
over a year ago (re-dubbing it No
Cliche), it was obvious that the
company's first title under Sega's banner
wouldn't be another Twinsen game, but
rather an entirely new and original title.
No ClichP has been very secretive about
Toy Commander, and its obscure
working title, Gutherman, didn't clarify
things either. Nearing two years in
development, Sega waited for the recent
Electronic Entertainment Expo to unveil
a game that's a surprisingly quirky and
dramatic departure from the French
developer's previous works.
Not unlike 3DO's Army Men
franchise (in fact, suspiciously close to
3DO's Army Men franchise), the game
puts the player into a world where toys
wage war. The battles take place in a
large house inhabited by a young boy
named Guthy (a name likely to changed
in the U.S. release) and his large toy
collection. The conflict arises when the
boy's teddy bear, Hugolin, decides to
challenge the boy's position as "toy
commander" and forms an alliance with
seven boss characters to defeat him.
Each of the bosses (among them a
robot, clown, etc.) has filled an area of
Lighting and other environmental effects are very impressive and
add life to the plastic world
strategically drop off (and pick up)
plastic soldiers for battle, in other levels,
it's possible to switch between ground-
based and air-based vehicles, for
example, to defeat a kangaroo dressed
as Godzilla.
Except for the game's movie
sequences, Guthy does not appear in
the game itself and is not shown
manipulating the toys onscreen.
"That would have looked a bit odd,
wouldn't it?" Frederick Raynal, the
game's creative director, asks. But
Raynal's team isn't afraid of wacky ideas.
In what constitutes a rather original take
on the now-standard "water level,"
Hugolin and his minions have flooded
the kitchen and nearby rooms, forcing
the player to move by plane or ship.
Even in the early version presented at
E3, the control for each of these vehicles
and characters seemed very instinctive,
and it doesn't take much practice before
one is able to fly through the house with
ease, performing the kind of aerobatics
required for sophisticated attacks.
'Toy Commander is not really a kid's
For the 10% of the audience that doesn't like to blow things up,
developer No Cliche has added weapons-free racing
O •
ti d *
game, though," Raynal explains, "it's
rather aimed at ages 15 and up.
Controlling the planes and following
missions is still a little too hard for my
six-year-old son. But then he went and
beat the whole No Cliche team in a
Power Stone contest."
Time will also play a crucial part in
completing the game, and Raynal
promises an entire hidden area if certain
times and goals are met. As for
multiplayer modes, up to four players will
be able to compete in a split-screen
mode that offers games such as capture-
the-flag and cat-and-mouse.
Unfortunately, though, network options
will only be added to the Japanese
version, which will be released later this
year. According to Raynal, Sega may
release a gold version with network
support in Europe and the U.S. later on. A
PC version of Toy Commander is also in
development for an early 2000 release.
And while No Cliche is putting the
finishing touches on Toy Commander,
the company is already working on its
second Dreamcast game, the "survival
horror" action-adventure Agartha, which
should hit shelves late next year. Raynal
promises it to be "very dark, gory, and
with a very high graphical quality."
So much for colorful toys and
cuddly enemies.
47
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
August 1999
With a stronger focus on level variety and all-new
features like the targeting mode. Die Hard Trilogy 2 's
third-person action sequences play more like the hit
Syphon Filter than the original game
The game
levels are
the most
interactive
we've seen.
Shoot a
terrorist in
the knee
and he falls
in pain,
shoot a gas
tank and...
boom
48
DIE HARD TRILOGY 2
Ever wonder what happened after Die Hard 31 Evidently there are always more terrorists
FORMAT
PSX/PC
PUBLISHER
Fox Interactive
DEVELOPER
Nspace
RELEASE DATE
Fall 1999
ORIGIN
U^.
f there is anything we've learned
from the Die Hard trilogy of
movies, it's that John Maclaine, cop
extraordinaire, is always going to find
himself in the thick of trouble, in Die
Hard Trilogy 2, the story leads off after
Trilogy's finale with Maclaine once again
finding himself in a bad situation: he
goes out to Vegas to visit his friend
Kenny Sinclair at a prison-privatizing
party (evidently, it's a prestigious thing).
Soon enough, terrorists show up and
take the people at the party hostage,
forcing Maclaine to fight his way out.
This is where the game begins — it's up
to you to not only escape from the
prison but to figure out the terrorists'
insidious scheme and stop it if you can.
The story unfolds in-game, and like
the first game, you must play through
stages of third-person action, shooting,
and driving to get to the end. Now, with
the addition of a storyline, the different
types of gameplay segue into each other
and you never know which type of game
you will be playing next. While the
gameplay of each engine is similar in
theme to the original game, they have
been improved significantly. "With a
sequel, you're always being careful
about how much you're changing,"
explains Gary Sheinwald, the senior
producer on the game. "You don't want
to change too much, so that people that
liked the first one won't like the sequel,
and you want to change it enough so
that it's a different experience."
At 50% done, it already looks like the
team may be able to hit this mark
exactly. The game starts with a third-
person engine that has you guiding
Maclaine through levels from a
perspective that's somewhere between
Tomb Raider and a top view. With the
addition of a plot to the game, the
designers have added some more
complex level designs which look as
though they'll actually challenge the
player to do more than just having to run
down the halls shooting copiously. Also
new are a repertoire of moves for
Maclaine that make him that much more
movie-like. Players can now jump
through windows head first with their
guns blazing, stop and look around
corners, or even advance slowly with
The PlayStation version
may be in a lower
resolution, but it still
manages to look good
PSX/PC
NG ALPHAS
Succesfully navigating the light-gun mode doesn't
require sharp aim. You must also have the discipline to
hold your fire as hostages scurry out of the way
their gun down in the characteristic style
of the movie.
The attention to detail adds an air
of authenticity that the original
somewhat lacked. "In the first DHT, the
gun game had a very destructible
environment, and we're trying to bring
that to all three games," says Sheinwald
as he uses Maclaine to shoot out
windows, set off fire alarms, and
generally cause mayhem in his
environment. Terrorists catch fire and
run screaming toward him only to be put
out by the water from the ceiling
extinguishers — they are then taken out
by a clean head shot with the new-and-
improved aiming feature.
These details carry over into the gun
part of the game, which is equally
improved with a robust new graphics
engine that displays polygonal enemies
instead of the two-dimensional baddies
of the first game. As promised,
everything we could think of could be
shot (including hostages — oops!) and
there was just as much fun to be had
looking for secrets as there was shooting
the enemies. The concept of bosses has
also made its way into the game, and a
character that you fight in the gun mode
can run away to fight you again in a
different mode.
Unfortunately, as of press time, the
third engine (the driving engine) was the
least completed, and the levels featured
no real detail. Fans of the first game will
be pleased to find out that the ability to
shave some time off your pursuit by
running onto the sidewalks has been
Terrorists catch fire and run screaming
toward you only to be put out by the
water from the ceiling extinguishers
kept intact, complete with the
windshield wipers that clean the blood
off after plowing through a particularly
busy area.
Overall, it looks as if DHT 2 is on the
right track to being another hit for Fox.
While there are fewer levels than in the
first, Sheinwald promises that the game
will be "much bigger overall," and with
that promise comes a level of
storytelling and level design which will ,
pull you even more into the mythos.
Yippie kai ay, uhhh.... guys.
while it is possible to play each type of
game individually in the arcade mode,
the real challenge comes from running
the gauntlet of all three while in the
story mode
NEXT GENERATION Aug ust 1999 _________ http://www.next-generation.com
N" Logo are trademarks Of Nintendo of America Inc.
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
NG ALPHAS
When your Sims show some skin, the
game keeps things clean with witness-
protection-style pixelation. Sometimes
your Sims will appeal to the player for
help — here, the one fanning her armpits
needs a shower, while the other one
needs to relax in front of the television
Real Quake skins can be used to outfit your Sims. As you can see here, they don't spend all their
time deathmatching — they have their more domestic side
THE SIMS
Will The Sims do for human nature what SimCity did for urban planning?
52
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
Electronic Arts
DEVELOPER
Maxis
RELEASE DATE
Winter 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
ill Wright's SimCity series was the
foundation upon which Maxis built
its reputation. The franchise has spawned
a number of in-house projects ( SimAnt,
Simlsle, and SimCopter, to name a few)
and copycat games from other
publishers. None of these come close to
having the impact and longevity of the
original, however, Wright's latest project,
The Sims, could very well overshadow
the gold mine that is SimCity.
The Sims started seven years ago as
a home architectural simulation and
evolved over time into a complete
behavioral simulation of individuals in a
neighborhood. At its core. The Sims still
contains the architectural simulation,
whereby players can choose a lot and
design a home. But players must also
design the home's inhabitants — and
that's where things get interesting.
Wright purposefully avoided creating
human simulations until now, but he
feels it is an idea whose time has come.
"With SimCity, it was easy to put up
plausible traffic patterns. I mean, it's hard
to argue with statistical layers. But when
you watch a person walk around on the
screen, we are so attuned to human
behavior that it is very easy to pick out
an inappropriate decision."
The key technology in The Sims is
what Wright calls a "behavioral engine."
Ditching the classical Ai approaches
where the emphasis is on creating smart
characters, The Sims uses a distributed
behavior model where objects and
environment have behavior embedded in
them — the file for the model of a TV, for
example, contains all the instructions for
watching it and the conditions under
which a Sim would want to. In addition to
creating believable interactions, the side-
effect benefit of this model is that new
objects can be dropped into the mix
without the need to make people in the
game any smarter.
"I can drop a soccer ball into the
game and it will contain all the rules for
soccer, along with the associated sounds
You can choose career
paths for your Sims
ranging from a military
job to a life of crime
PC
You distribute points among five traits:
neatness, laziness, playfulness,
extrovertedness, and niceness
Sims left to their own devices will cause
unpleasant living environments. Witness
the piles of refuse, uncleaned bathroom,
flies buzzing around half-eaten pizzas,
and dying houseplants as the bachelor
orders another pizza
Build a relationship and
you may get to propose,
if the Sim says yes, you
get married on the spot
NG ALPHAS
and animations," says Wright. "People
could, say, download the soccer ball
from the web and their Sims would
automatically go outside to play soccer
when they become bored."
From the get-go, The Sims is a
unique game with clever concepts, its
load/save screen is a ten-lot suburban
neighborhood, and each family that
occupies a house is the representation of
a saved game. Once you build a house
and create a family, you can actually
invite your neighboring saved-game
families over for dinner.
Not unlike an RPG, to create people
in the game you must choose the sex,
skin color, and age. In addition, you
distribute points among five personality
traits: neatness, extroverted ness,
playfulness, laziness, and niceness.
Wright suggests balancing out your
families for best results. A skin editor is
already available and eager users are
creating customized Sims by the
hundreds. And in an unlikely twist, the
editor will enable users to import Quake
II skins directly.
Characters in the game will initially
need to be babied, fulfilling their basic
needs for food, comfort, and cleanliness
— and yes, you will need to potty-train
your fledgling Sims. But as you provide a
better environment, their autonomous
decision making improves. At that point,
you can work on higher needs such as
careers and relationships.
Wright wants to leave the game
open-ended like SimCity, but the measure
of success in the Sims is prosperity.
You're going for the big house on the hill,
a lot of friends, and a successful job, but
that doesn't mean you must be a doctor
or lawyer to win. in fact, you can choose
a life of crime and retire as a successful
criminal mastermind.
The Sims turned a lot of heads at E3,
and if it continues on its current path,
someone at Electronic Arts will have the
pleasure of telling his boss, "I told
you so."
53
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC/DC
NG ALPHAS
I Although combat is exciting,
players will need to trade cargo
I to upgrade weaponry
ar
The Jump Runner universe is home to numerous gangs and empires. "Hero" Ethan Fall comes
under attack by everyone from small-time pirates to intergalactic warlords
JUMP RUNNER
I Can a space-based combat-and-trading game keep a newly independent developer going?
FORMAT
PC, Dreamcast
PUBLISHER
TBA
DEVELOPER
Glass Ghost
RELEASE DATE
December 1999
ORIGIN
UJ<.
eveloper Simis had long been
known for its sims, but after a
management buyback from Eidos last
year, it was clear that the newly
independent company would have to
diversify to survive. So now, a year later,
two studios exist: Simis still specializes in
PC-based sims but also runs Glass Ghost.
So it's no surprise that its first project.
Jump Runner, is described in grand terms.
Obvious comparisons such as Elite and
Privateer join elements of Grand Theft
Auto, Dungeon Keeper, and Final Fantasy.
Set hundreds of years into the future, its
eponymous jump runner, Ethan Fall, is a
small-time smuggler who agrees to carry a
mysterious package. Before he can learn
its destination, however, his contact is
assassinated and he flees. A cut scene
then shows six bounty hunters being sent
to recover the package, and they act as
end-of-level bosses throughout the game.
This is typical of the way the plot is
structured: you travel around sprawling
galaxies, accepting bread-and-butter
missions to build up resources. Unlike
Privateer, you can own more than one
ship and swap weapons. Progress is
strictly controlled by plot missions, and
clues about the mysterious package are
slowly uncovered en route.
□
If you rip off a valuable cargo from one
gang, you shouldn’t get into too much
trouble with its arch-enemies
Each new level is determined by the
success or failure of previous missions. For
example, if you rip off a valuable cargo
from one gang, you shouldn't get into too
much trouble with its arch-enemies.
As James Brooksby, project director,
explains, "Jump Runner is for Dreamcast
and PC, so it has to be designed so that
anybody can pick it up, and as a player,
you need to feel you are somebody." All
the trading is driven by interacting with
other characters. "We wanted to get away
from mission briefings and introduce story
elements, something like Final Fantasy,"
Brooksby continues.
Jump Runner may only be halfway
complete, but a small-scale multiplayer
universe has already been successfully
tested. The final version will support a
persistent Internet environment for PC
and, potentially, Dreamcast as well. But for
Simis co-founder lan Baverstock, this is
more than just another game: "Glass
Ghost is focused on games, and Jump
Runner will be the one to show off
what we can do."
The game mixes the
adrenaline rush of space
combat with the
capitalism of smuggling,
with a story driven by
your success or failure
54
PLAYSTATION
NG ALPHAS
FEAR FACTOR
Anime meets Resident Evil
— can Kronos make it work?
Does anyone bother making games without tough chicks anymore?
it remains to be seen
whether Kronos can out-
Resident Evil Capcom,
but at least it's ambitious
ear Factor is unique not just for
what it's attempting, but for what its
designers chose not to attempt. A
character-based action/adventure game,
Fear Factor uses streaming FMV
backgrounds with 3D models for its main
characters and foregrounds. The twist is
that the 3D characters are rendered out
with a special technique that gives them a
decidedly fluid 2D anime look.
Producer John Patten, who worked on
Activision's Battlezone and ultima IX
Ascension, explains this decision. "While I
respect what the 3D characters out there
have done for the game industry, they're
all starting to look the same. They're
almost becoming cliche."
Patten's intention? To "amp-up the
good stuff from Resident Evil and the
Alone in The Dark series." Indeed,
Kronos' pre-rendered FMV backgrounds
move simultaneously with the camera
around the 3D characters and objects, in
addition, there are invisible polygons
that track the position of some objects
in the background, enabling the player
to interact with them.
with hundreds of pre-rendered
backgrounds for hundreds of screen
views, Fear Factor will occupy a whopping
four CDs. The gameplay is split into
sections, where you play one of three
characters. Following the current trend,
one character is a beautiful and deadly
woman who comfortably totes two guns.
in addition to the traditional projectile
and grenade arsenal, some interesting
hand-to-hand weapons include a garroting
wire, a meat hook, a power saw, and a
surgical blade. However, while combat
plays a big part in the game, it's balanced
Believe it or not, all the
characters are actually
3D models — they just
look like anime cartoons
“While I respect what the 3D characters
out there have done for the game industry,
they’re all starting to look the same”
with adventure-game-style puzzles with
contextual clues.
Kronos promises that the game will
be fast-paced and that the action and
puzzles will be integrated into the story.
The new technologies employed in the
game are ambitious, and the few early
screens Next Generation saw
demonstrated a command of the new
tools. As a graphics effects house, Kronos'
background lies more in art than in game
design, and only time will tell if the design
team's daring attempt to be different will
result in exceptional playability. j^Qg origin
John Patten, producer
FORMAT
PlayStation
PUBLISHER
Eidos
DEVELOPER
Kronos Digital Entertainment
RELEASE DATE
Q4 1999
55
http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC
NG ALPHAS
SOLDIER OF FORTUNE
I Think Quake III: Arena is the only PC shooter of 1999? Raven's about to surprise you
Unlike Half-Life, there will be many different-looking NPCs in Soldier
of Fortune. Raven's proprietary GHOUL system allows for an easy
mix-and-match of various physical traits
Shades of ColdenEye ?
Sniper scopes, throwing
knives... heck, there are
even enemies hiding out in
the toilet stalls
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
Activision
DEVELOPER
Raven Software
RELEASE DATE
November 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
bar for this kind of game, and we're going
to take it to the next level."
Coincidentally, SOF is also based on
a Quake engine, but the team at Raven
prefers to call it "Quake 2.9." Like Valve,
Raven has added quite a bit of
proprietary technology to its engine,
including 32-bit color, curved surfaces,
and highly-detailed textures. At the heart
modification is GHOUL, a rendering
□ ot long ago, Quake ill designer Tim
Willits told Next Generation that it
was not his goal to recreate the mundane
world. While id's levels take game
environments to the extreme, there's
nothing mundane about Raven Software's
Soldier of Fortune — a first-person thriller
set in real-world environments and
loosely based on the military magazine of
the same name.
In Soldier of Fortune (SOF), the player
assumes the role of a modern-day
soldier-for-hire, out to prevent a fanatical
mercenary faction from securing nuclear
arms. The single-player game takes place
in nineteen locations on five continents,
including Iraq, New York City, Uganda,
Kosovo, Colombia, and Russia, just to
name a few. The locations are visited
throughout 30 missions with assignments
that include hostage rescues, escorting
and reconnaissance scenarios, and plenty
of assassinations and vehicle destruction.
Raven maintains the story has been
written by a "well-known, published
writer," who has had to remain nameless
due to contractual issues at press time.
"Quite simply," says Eric Biessman,
project lead at Raven Software,
"atmosphere is the key to what we're
trvinp tn hnilri hprp Half-1 ifp rakprl thp
Yeah, it's hyper violent all right, but what did you expect from a
game licensed after a right-wing, pro-gun, survivalist magazine like
Soldier of Fortune? A butterfly-collecting simulator?
Shooting a player in the face or gut may yield a gushing stream of
blood to pour out of the wound. However, Raven has added a
parental lock for concerned parents, which can turn off the gore
system that allows for location-based per-
poly collision detection. Characters are
made up of 26 damage points (or "gore
zones," as Raven puts it), so it's possible
to shoot an enemy in the arm, the legs,
the head, or even the groin. Not only can
players shoot a weapon out of someone's
hands, but with the sniper mode on, it is
possible to knock the glasses off
someone's face if you're a good enough
shot. While this is not unlike the location-
based damage seen in Rare's GoldenEye,
it's far more graphic. SOF is truly gory —
players can fully dismember limbs or
decapitate a baddie with one blast from
the right weapon.
As the game takes place in modern-
day society, all of the weapons are based
on real ones, although Raven has
changed the names of each for licensing
reasons. This may be beneficial given the
current climate surrounding the
videogame industry. Finger-pointing
politicians aside, players who are mature
enough to handle the subject matter can
expect an array of sniper rifles, semi- and
fully-automatic pistols, and an assortment
of peripheral weapons such as grenades
and bombs.
All the animations and the many
scripted sequences are motion-captured
for convincing realism. NPCs will walk
around and go about their daily lives
while others may request to join in on the
fight. Dynamic music, by way of
compressed WAV files, will change
depending on the scene and what's
happening on screen.
On the multiplayer front, there will
With the sniper mode on, it’s possible to
knock the glasses off someone’s face if
you’re a good enough shot
be six modes of play for LAN or internet
gamers. Along with the regular
deathmatch, capture the flag, and king of
the hill variations, SOF offers a couple
new twists, in assassin mode, the goal is
to frag the target player, and then the
killer becomes the hunted. The player
who can stay alive longest and be the
target of all players is the one to win. In
arsenal mode, the winner will be the
player capable of killing using one of
each of the weapons provided.
If all goes well. Soldier of Fortune
should be out by November of this year. It
will require, at the minimum, a P200 with
a voodoo 1 card. Let's just hope
Activision doesn't rush this potentially
groundbreaking shooter out the door
prematurely (a la Sin or Quake ID because
it certainly is one of the most promising
PC action titles in some time. CnQS
in multiplayer games,
server hosts will have the
option to scale the effect
of bullets, so players
won't die from a single
shot to the head, as in the
single-player game
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC
NG ALPHAS
EVOLVA
Sometimes a great game comes out of nowhere. Here's one that
not only looks like nothing else, but plays like nothing else
58
n f Computer Artworks does anything
well, it's push the technology
envelope, add originality, and surprise
people with the result. In 1994, its Organic
Art mixed an easy-to-use interface with
high-end graphics, enabling you to "breed"
shapes and create organic images as
screensavers (see "Artificial Life," NG 23).
The media went ballistic, and it quickly
crossed into the worlds of fashion and
club culture — not bad for a project that
started out as a vehicle to develop 3D
technology for games.
In the years since, the company has
been quiet. Odd details surfaced about
Evolva, but little of real substance. "We got
our heads down and did some really good
work," says Computer Artworks President
William Latham. "There's always a danger
when developers start shouting about
stuff before they've done anything." So for
two years, they've been plugging away
designing Evolva 's code in-house, and all
of it, from the 3D engine to the physics,
the Al code, and the in-game editor, is
modular and reusable for future titles.
The game's premise is that mankind
has mastered genetic engineering, the
result of which is the genohunter, a basic
military unit. As commander of a
“There’s always a danger when developers
start shouting about stuff before they’ve
done anything” william Latham, president. Computer Artworks
Given Computer Artworks'
background in artificial-life
programs, it's not surprising
that the enemies have an
organic look (with the
possible exception of the
rocket launching and fire
breathing)
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
Computer Artworks
DEVELOPER
Interplay/Virgin
RELEASE DATE
Q4 1999
ORIGIN
U.K.
genohunter squad, you're deployed to a
planet where a parasite has landed and
spawned an army of guardians to defend
itself. The job is to wipe them out before
the entire universe is infected.
Computer Artworks is striving to
balance innovation with traditional gaming
staples. The game uses a third-person
perspective, but gives you control of up to
four playable characters at once. The basic
game structure — killing aliens — is
nothing new, but instead of the usual
power-ups and additional weapons,
characters are upgraded genetically.
Genohunters absorb genes from dead
enemies to acquire their abilities. Each set
of genes controls a range of mutations,
from growing enormous claws or spore
guns to more mundane abilities such as
Computer Artworks made a splash a couple of years back with
Organic Art, a mathematically complex and eye-grabbing screensaver
Don't look for power-ups
in this game — your
characters gain abilities
by stealing genes
One thing is for sure:
Evolva 's oddly pretty
environments don't look
quite like any other game
that's come before
night vision, long jumps, or climbing. They
even change their external appearance.
Starting with one genohunter,
additional units are added, up to four. Any
genohunter can be played as the main
character, with the other three views
displayed at the bottom of the screen. "On
the first level, you just control one
genohunter and get into the Heretic II style
of gameplay," explains Producer Vince
Farquharson. "By level four you've got
Syndicate Wars multiple-selection stuff."
Much of the game will be played from
the view of one of the genohunters, but
there is a top-down view for the more
tactical elements of gameplay. "At one end
you've got Quake," says Technical Director
Mark Atkinson. "At the other you've got
Command & Conquer. It was a
fundamental decision to go in-between
and focus on this unexplored area of
small-scale tactical play."
if you're going to have autonomous
genohunters, their Al must be good, it is,
but they're not the only ones who act
intelligently — all the creatures exhibit
sophisticated behavior, using complex
code, each creatures is controlled by 20
different factors, including territorial
preferences, health levels, and the
proximity of friends and enemies, while a
fuzzy logic controller decides overall
behavior. For example, an aggressive
guardian low on health may either go into
a dying frenzy or turn tail and run. But, if it
finds another group of guardians, it could
become aggressive again.
The creatures have basic memory
and mapping functions, too. "If you run
away, guardians will see where you ran,
and since that's the last point they saw
you, they'll remember something was
there," says Farquharson. "Often they'll
come up and investigate the last place
they saw you." There's also a messaging
system so they can communicate with
each other, giving the distinct impression
you're fighting a well-organized and
intelligent enemy. It certainly seems to
have the makings of a great game.
indeed, recent rumors suggest that
Evolva will be a launch title for PlayStation
2 in Europe. "We've definitely positioned
combat is fairly simple to
control and genohunter Al
keeps the squad together,
which is good considering
the fearsome opponents
on the planet
ourselves to be right at the cutting edge,
“We have an ambitious business plan, and
the game obviously lends itself to
[PlayStation 2] • • • william Latham, president
so that we're a desirable developer for
people like Sony," confides Latham. "We
have an ambitious business plan, and the
game obviously lends itself to that
platform as we have written neat,
transferable technology." He remarks,
somewhat ambiguously, "You can draw
your own conclusions."
I
I
1
1
59
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
HOSTILE WATERS
Can Rage's next project, a thinking man's Incoming, compete with
heavy hitters like Homeworld and Battlezone 2 ?
60
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
TBA
DEVELOPER
Rage Birmingham
RELEASE DATE
Q1 2000
ORIGIN
U.K.
.K.-based Rage Software turned
heads with the amazing
pyrotechnics showcased in its PC
shooter incoming, but its partnership
with a small publisher (Xicat) led to the
game's widespread unavailability in the
U.S. Having proven its graphics prowess,
however, Rage hopes to capture the
praise of the hardcore gaming audience
with Hostile Waters.
When Rage drew up the game's
strategy-action design doc, it started with
the concept of updating the classic game
Carrier command, giving it the full 30-
accelerator treatment. Producer Julian
Widdows notes, "Because our game is
based in a realistic environment, we
can't get away with the bright lights and
flashes of our sister products. We have to
be a little more subtle and delicate, and
this takes a lot of time and effort." So
much time and effort, in fact, that the
game has a dedicated "special effects"
team in addition to the standard artists
and programmers.
in Hostile waters, your center of
operations is an "adaptive cruiser"
capable of generating fifteen different
types of vehicles. These vehicles include
three types of helicopters, two tanks, a
hovertank, a reconnaissance buggy, and
a scavenger. The gameplay is split
between making strategic decisions
from within the carrier and operating the
vehicles on the landscape, in the
strategy mode, players control
construction, research, and battle plans.
At any point, players can take control of
the vehicles to ensure the success of
the mission. Subsequently, the gameplay
focus switches from real-time strategy to
a first-person vehicular action game with
outstanding graphics.
As with the upcoming Battlezone II
(see page 40), Rage insists that every
object and every vehicle in the game
rely on physics. When a tank is blown up,
it doesn't just spray triangle polygons
everywhere, but breaks up into individual
chunks, each of which is a deformed
and charred piece of the whole tank.
These chunks are also ruled by physics,
so they can tumble down hills or wash
up on shore.
Unsigned as of yet, we're hoping
Rage finds a publisher so Hostile waters
will wash up on our shores when
it's finished early next year.
.
Rage cut its special
effects teeth on incoming
but is now aiming for a
more subtle approach
PLAYSTATION
NG ALPHAS
ARMY MEN AIR ATTACK
I The little green men march on — and we don't mean the ones from Mars
caught between the Tan
army and an army of
ants, an intrepid chopper
pilot could drag a box
of fireworks to the
anthill and eliminate
the six-legged problem
couple of years ago, 3D0 struck
gold with the launch of its Army
Men franchise, the ongoing saga of the
brave Green plastic men and their struggle
against the evil Tan plastic menace. Army
Men Air Attack pushes things in a new and
promising direction: air-to-ground combat.
A new character, Captain, pilots air cavalry
against the Tan army, who bring in Roman
candles and bottle rockets for air defense.
Not surprisingly, the gameplay is
markedly different from previous games in
the series. "The army men universe is just
a fun universe to be in," says Kudo
Tsunoda, senior director, "and definitely
with all the Army Men games you can see
we have really different gameplay, but still
we maintain the army men theme —
playing with the scale, playing with the
toys — that can be universally applied to a
bunch of different kinds of games."
And different, this certainly is. Three
of the game's six areas are set in the "real
world" — in someone's backyard, a
campground, and on a playground. The
choppers can grab and winch almost any
object, enabling you to do things like drag
a doughnut from a picnic site into the Tan
fortress, which attracts ants who destroy
the soldiers. Likewise, bees fly from flower
to flower, and by dragging a flower into an
area, the bee will follow.
"That's not something a six-year-old
would do," Tsunoda explains, "but we're
making it so it's simple enough for a kid,
0
but adding that extra depth of gameplay.
We have the two-player cooperative
mode, trying to make a game that kids and
their parents can play together, so on one-
half of the screen the kid can be flying
around and shooting, while the parent
does the more sophisticated tactics."
The one thing you can say about the
Army Men series is that it's always had a
strong sense of groan-and-roll-your-eyes
humor. Combine this with a strong
graphics engine, simple controls, and
oddball level designs, and you could
have a winner. So far. Air Attack looks
just like one.
FORMAT
PlayStation
PUBLISHER
3DO
DEVELOPER
3DO
Yup, there's a little tiny
war going on in your very
own backyard — kinda
reminds us of childhood
RELEASE DATE
Fall 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
The game's two-player modes include cooperative and capture the flag, but also
"Tic Tac Blow" — tic-tac-toe in which you fight for the square
61
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 __ http://www.next-generation.com
SWAT 3: CLOSE QUARTERS BATTLE
I Can tight quarters in full 3D and close attention to detail revive a flagging series?
62
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
Sierra
DEVELOPER
Sierra Studios
RELEASE DATE
Q4 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
□ ierra's SWAT series has never been
a classic. The original was a horrid
FMV affair, while SWAT2 took a shake at
realtime strategy and squarely blew it.
But SWAT 3 is set to buck the trend.
Moving the series into the 3D age, the
game puts the player in control of a
squad of five SWAT officers from a first-
person perspective through 18 missions
ranging from hostage rescues to serving
high-risk warrants to protecting VIPs.
One parallel is obvious. "A lot of
people are comparing us to Rainbow
Six," says Producer Rod Fung, "and we're
flattered by the comparison, but we're a
very different game. Rainbow Six is a
strategy game. SWAT 3 is a game built on
tactics, where each room, door, or
person encountered in an environment
dictates the player's next move or
team command."
SWATS interface is amazingly
simple, there's no need to set up routes
for the squad to follow. Instead, you
control your team directly in realtime
through a series of keystroke
commands, each of which brings up a
submenu of further choices. Tap the key
for "clear room," and a submenu
appears with new keystrokes for "left
door," "right door," and so on. "The Ai
“You’ll have to learn to locate and use
hard cover... suspects may shoot at you
through doors and walls” Rod Fung, proc
characters also react to their
environment," Fung explains, "if they're
executing a command but are
interrupted by a suspect or hostage,
they'll respond accordingly."
Heightening the sense of tension is
the game's unique treatment of building
materials. "All of the wall surfaces have
unique penetration values," says Fung.
"Depending on the material's thickness
and type, the firearm you are using, and
the ballistics of your chosen ammunition,
you can penetrate walls. You'll have to
quickly learn to locate and use hard
cover, or you're likely to get hit.
Suspects, on the other hand, may shoot
at you through doors and walls if they
happen to sense you."
it doesn't hurt that the team
consulted closely with Ken Thatcher, a
26-year veteran of LAPD SWAT (who also
performed all the motion capture), or
that members of the team attended
SWAT training. Authentic? Realistic?
intuitive? You bet. We'll be
watching this one.
The game not only lets
you shoot through walls,
but wounded characters
leave blood trails, which
can either be tracked or
betray your location
PLAYSTATION
CRUSADERS OF
MIGHT AND MAGIC
One of the oldest series in gaming is out looking for some action
NG ALPHAS
o
vO
□ he Might and Magic series has had
a devoted following since its debut
on Apple II in 1986. And so it's come to
pass that the series is poised to invade the
console world, not with a port of an
existing game (which has been done
before, several times, with varying degrees
of success), but with an installment of the
game built from the ground up.
"We have to capitalize on our
strengths — the fantasy world, the
storytelling," explains 3DO's Scott
McDaniel, "but we also want to capitalize
on the strengths of the platform as well.
So Crusader is an action game."
Crusader uses a third-person
perspective, seen from the usual over-the-
shoulder view. And although a great deal
of effort has gone into ensuring that the
game appeals to an action-hungry console
audience, it still maintains the feel of a
fantasy RPG. You take the part of Drake,
who grew up to be a feared mercenary
after his village was destroyed by an
undead army. "We're not going to go
campy, like Duke Nukem," McDaniel says
of the character, "but he will have a lot of
The game gives different
options on how best to
advance your character,
with "magic" being one
possibility — unleash
devastating special effects
on your enemies!
^ l:
attitude, more of a dark hero style, like
Clint Eastwood at the end of Unforgiven ."
instead of the usual power-ups that
wear off, you pick up items such as armor
and weapons. Success in battle brings
experience, which can then be spent to
upgrade the character's fighting or spell
abilities. Like all good action heroes, Drake
can jump, flip, roll, backflip, climb, and
more, and each attack is different
depending on the type of weapon he uses.
Drake fights some 35 different
creatures, through 15 "levels" of five
different environment types. "We're trying
to keep it very open ended in the level
design," says McDaniel, "in that we're not
going to limit it to 'finish the level, move
on.' There's going to be tons of quests
involved. So you reach the top of the
citadel, and other crusaders come through
the window — it's not a cut scene, you'll
join the battle — and once the battle's
over, they'll tell you, 'Oh, you have to go
back and rescue someone.' So you have
to remember how you got in, where this
person might be, then go back."
Sounds good to us.
FORMAT
PlayStation
PUBLISHER
3DO
DEVELOPER
3DO
RELEASE DATE
Q4 1999
ORIGIN
U.S.
The game's enemies are as varied as its terrain. You fight creatures both
undead and breathing, in environments both inside and outside
3
63
NG ALPHAS
Oh
GENESIS: APERIAN 7
Massive Entertainment isn't letting resource management get in the way
of its realtime strategy game — in fact, the team has cut it out entirely
FORMAT
PC
PUBLISHER
TBA
DEVELOPER
Massive Entertainment
RELEASE DATE
Fall 1999
ORIGIN
Sweden
combat and no resource management."
Unlike Homeworld 's space-based
missions, Massive's game is firmly rooted
on the terrain of Aperian 7, a newly
discovered planet 450 years in the future.
"There are two factions who discovered
the planet," says walfisz. "it's Earth-like,
and they want to migrate their people
there. That's the basis of the conflict."
The two factions Walfisz refers to are
the Crayven Corporation and the Wrath
Coalition. He describes the Crayvens as
"good guys, with a strong-balanced army"
and the Wraths as "bad guys, religious
fanatics, with more advanced technology,
but not always as stable."
Of course, players can choose either
side and launch into the mission-based
single-player campaigns, of which there
I h
/ •
hen Next Generation met with
Massive Entertainment at the 3Dfx
booth at E3, we couldn't help but notice
how much the game looks like a ground-
based version of Homeworld — detailed
unit designs, fantastic lighting effects, and
a user-controlled camera that takes player
from nose-hair close to a stadium-cam
view with the drag of a mouse. Yes, it's a
realtime strategy game — but as
Massive's CEO and Lead Designer Martin
walfisz says, one with "a lot more focus on
64
will be 15 unique missions for each. TTiere
are plans for up to eight-player
deathmatch games, and several other
multiplayer variations with what Walfisz
describes as "objective-oriented goals,"
but he's currently keeping them secret.
Players begin the campaigns with
basic Marine squads, and as the game
continues, they acquire new customizable
units and weapons. Each mission begins
with the player loading their Aliens-s\y\e
“I really like resource management games,
but [they can take] too much time. Ours is
gonna be faster” Martin walfisz. CEO and lead designer
drop ship with the type of squads they
want for the mission, then descending to
the planet surface to begin the RTS part of
the game. Players can control up to 12
squads at a time (players never pilot
individual units), and the number of units
per squad depends on the type of unit.
"For example," Walfisz says, "A light tank
squad is always four units, and heavy tank
squad is always two units."
The game also adds a bit of an RPG
element. Each squad has a squad leader,
and as Walisz says, "they will increase
their skills with more experience, so you
don't want to get them killed too soon."
But the two things that really make
Aperian 7 compelling are the jump-into-
the-action gameplay and the painstaking
detail in creating this virgin world.
Players can utilize
artillery units for long-
range attacks but need
to be wary of the
friendly-fire damage they
can do to their own
forward units
"I really like resource management
games, but sometimes it takes too much
time," says Walfisz. "Ours is gonna be
faster, much more action-oriented."
But strategy will be required, and the
variety of 3D terrain certainly affects the
way the game is played. Standing in
shadows, for example, gives your units a
better chance of going undetected, and
fighting from an elevated position makes it
easier to attack enemies.
"We want to create a believable
environment," Walfisz says, "to keep real
scale and a sense of a believable science
fiction world."
Like any industry driven by creativity,
the new ideas usually come from the
newcomers, and Walfisz started Massive
(now a 17-employee operation) two years
ago with a business partner he met online.
By coincidence, Walfisz and Homeworld
creator Alex Garden met at CGDC '98,
when both were publicly showing their
respective games for the first time. And
while they share a mutual admiration for
each other's RTS titles, both will likely hit
market around the same time. Add to that
Activison's Dark Reign 2, Psygnosis' Metal
Fatigue, Interplay's Star Trek: New Worlds,
Westwood's Tiberian Sun, and LucasArts'
Force Commander, and the field of sci-fi
strategy games quickly becomes crowded
and very heated. Regardless of who takes
home the trophy. Massive's Genesis:
Aperian 7 should prove it can run
with the big dogs.
Armored vehicles are
more protected in the
front than in the rear.
Players who master
flanking attacks will
certainly have an
advantage
65
•RATip^figu^t' _ _ _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
66
SAN FRANCISCO RUSH 2049
1 Can Atari's futuristic sequel to Rush maintain the momentum?
□ he rush is back. Following San
Francisco Rush and San Francisco
Rush: The Rock Alcatraz Edition, San
Francisco Rush 2049 careens into
arcades this fall. In this, the third
incarnation of this popular street-racing
series, you can spin the wheels of a
futuristic concept car through a sci-fi
San Francisco 50 years from now.
First and foremost, rest easy in the
knowledge that Rush 2049 retains all the
elements which made hits of the first
While the majority of the city is futuristic,
the 1960s hippie haven of Haight-Ashbury
remains untouched by the sands of time
FORMAT
Arcade
PUBLISHER
Atari Games
DEVELOPER
Atari Games
RELEASE DATE
August
ORIGIN
U.S.
two — unparalleled driving realism, big
air time, fantasy shortcuts, and over-the-
top competition. Of course. Atari Games
has given the game a thorough update
with a new look and new gameplay
elements.
Players can choose from a stable of
eight new cars. (These autos of the
future aren't hovercrafts, though — just
sleeker designs of four-wheeled models.)
There are four new driving tracks, each
selectable in reverse mode for a total of
eight paths through the city. Rush's
signature shortcuts and super stunts are
available on all tracks; dynamic track
elements (including futuristic updates of
city trademarks like the famed cable
cars and the BART train system) ensure
that obstacles move and change on
each lap to add extra challenge for
experienced players.
Atari's sci-fi cityscape features
unusually moody lighting, new
ultramodern buildings, and way-out
structures with multi-tiered streets and
skyscrapers so tall they really do scrape
the stratosphere. (If you think you've
landed in a recent Bruce Willis flick.
Packed lanes are a Rush staple — actually, it doesn't look that much
different from the way things really are in San Francisco today
ARCADE
NG ALPHAS
The game retains many classic San Fran
landmarks: see coit Tower, above
you'll know where some of the
designers' inspiration came from.) As
with previous versions of Rush, you can
drive on rooftops, only now after
launching your car from the tops of the
skyscrapers, the jumps seem to go on
forever, while the majority of the city is
futuristic, the 1960s hippie haven of
Haight-Ashbury remains untouched by
the sands of time.
With a 60fps framerate, the game
delivers an unprecedented sense of
speed, packaged neatly in a deluxe new
sit-down cabinet featuring a 27-inch VGA
monitor, steering wheel, hand shifter,
and three foot pedals (clutch, brake, and
gas). The four-speed shifter works with
an even more realistic working foot-
clutch pedal than previous Rush
editions, offering greater precision
driving control and pickup speed
through the manual transmission option.
You'll also feel Atari's patented
feedback-steering mechanism as you
spin that steering wheel around sharp
curves.
Beyond the enhanced hardware.
Atari is introducing new arcade
technology giving players the option to
join "Team Rush" by registering their
player ID. (Just enter a 10-digit PIN
(phone number), then your driving
handle on the 12-digit, dash-mounted
keypad.) Team Rush members can keep
track of their total driving miles and win
prizes for high mileage. Players with high
mileage will unlock hidden cars, and
other new upgrade options, including
new paint jobs. Players can post high
scores and racing times on the Rush
web site, and the game will remember
your name and driving preferences next
time you come back to play.
So will Midway (Atari's parent
company) bring this latest Rush to a
console system? "It's likely," said one
Atari spokesperson, although specific
systems haven't been announced. Given
the game's sophisticated graphics, the
networking options of Team Rush, and
Midway's strong support of Dreamcast
thus far. Rush 2049 seems a natural for
that system or for PSX 2. Let's hope
Midway thinks so, too.
The standard Rush
options return, including
a variety of cars,
different courses,
automatic or manual
transmission, several
musical soundtracks,
and various paint jobs
67
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE
BIG HOUSE ANO A BIG HOUSE IN MALIBU.
YOU ARE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN 500 G J S AND
10-15 IN MAXIMUM SECURITY.
YOU ARE THE FASTEST DRIVER IN THE ENTIRE
CRIMINAL COMMUNITY.
No tracks. Just 4 sprawling urban
downtowns from NY to San Fran.
Getaway through real pedestrians,
traffic signals, traffic...and cops!
Film your own classic 70’s car chase
using incredible Director-Mode
Surveillance. Tailing. Deliveries.
Heists. And serious 70’$ muscle cars.
Driver™ <S> 1999 GT Interactive Software Corp. All Rights Reserved. Created by
Reflections Interactive Limited, a GT Interactive Software Corp. studio. Published &
distributed by GT Interactive Software Corp. Reflections and the Reflections logo are
trademarks of Reflections Interactive Limited. GT is a trademark and the GT logo is a
registered trademark of GT Interactive Software Corp PlayStation and the PlayStation
logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. All other trade¬
marks are the property of their respective companies
r GT Interactive
Software
PlayStation
1 SAH FRANCISCO
LOS flNGEUS
MIAMI j
MILESTONES
Next Generation's monthly update on tomorrow's games
ne more month until Dreamcast
arrives: have you pre-ordered?
Maybe you haven't — conservative
shoppers are quite aware this new
system arrives in the wake of a solid
selection of games for the current
generation. Not that some games haven't
been a long time coming. Finally, Shiny's
Messiah (first seen in NG 33, Sept. '97)
shows signs of nearing completion...
MESSIAH -
69
Originally scheduled
for the spring of '98,
and projected by
Shiny's Dave Perry to
deliver scalable
technology to "end
the polygon wars
once and for all,"
Messiah is now
tracking for a
holiday release, as
the cherub Bob,
[above] players can
possess upward of
50 characters and
take control of their
weapons as well
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
SACRIFICE -
Did Excitebike really need
a 3D update? we'll have to
see how it turns out...
COMMAND & CONQUER
The N64 version of this
classic is coming soon —
need we say more?
EXCITEBIKE 64
Sorcerers battle one another in a
fantasy realm by summoning all
manner of strange creatures to beat
the stuffing out of each other.
Shiny's first game with multiplayer
options looks like it's a cut above
NHL FACEOFF 2000 p*x
BASS LANDING «
We normally don't
get excited about
fishing games, but
like Dreamcast's
Get Bass, Agetec's
Bass Landing
comes with its
own Dual Shock
fishing-reel
controller. The
graphics will
barely pass as
average, but this
title brings plenty
of cool simulation
options with it
GameDay 2000 brings a unique telestrator feature to the replays [top],
and a throwback uniform option modeled here by the Chargers [above]
This isn't Acclaim's WWF Attitude — THQ is now showing this unnamed
wwf game as stone cold and company move to thq later this year
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 __ http://www.next-generation.com
0-60 (off a skyscraper)? Yes.
Racers, start your mayhem. Grab hold of one of 10 wild vehicles and race through the
windy streets of Chicago, where you'll have to deal with tough opponents, alleyways,
drawbridges, newspaper racks, tunnels, and the police. Throw in five race modes and
over 50 city landmarks, and there are plenty of sights to see. Just don't drive like a tourist.
See more action at
Gaming
^ZDNE
wvsvs.microsoft.com/games/midtown
© 1999 Microsoft Corporalion. All rights reserved. Microsoft is a registered trademark of
Microsoft Corporation. Volkswagen, the Volkswagen logo, and Beetle are copyright
©1999 Volkswagen of America, Inc. Trademarks, design patents and copyrights are used
with the approval of the owner.
Microsoft
An inside look at
the cutting edge
of videogame crime
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
File Name: The Piracy Files
Name: Unidentified suspect a,k,a, "PSX Cracker"
Case #: 94450-B
Prepared by: Special Agent Michael Brick
Jurisdiction: Federal
Date: August 1999
Charge: Copyright infringement
74
6. THUMB
7. FORE
8. MIDDLE
9. RING
10. LITTLE
Comments:
CD-R burners, empty jewel cases, CD label printers: byproducts of a
victimless crime, or the evidence of a federal crime punishable by
$100,000 per single disc copied? A Next Generation investigation.
JA ^—
/ Prosecuting Agent
Photographic images on these pages are actual shots from the June 1998 software-piracy bust of Liam McLaughlin
T wo flak-jacketed U.S. marshals combed the corridor
for back exits. The team fell in behind them, taking
care to keep out of sight of the peephole. The lead
marshal rapped on the door.
The man they were after, Liam McLaughlin, opened
it — just a crack — and the marshal slid his foot into
the jamb. The team rushed in as McLaughlin shuffled
his bare feet across the carpet. Evidence cluttered the
floor: Gunbolt. Battle Round. Ray Tracers. Madden
Football '98.
McLaughlin is exactly the kind of nobody the
videogame industry is worried about. Until the raid, he
was a bit player in a cast of counterfeiters and
smugglers that cost game companies in the U.S. more
than $3 billion last year. "Piracy is as big a contender as
anybody out there," says Richard Flamm, counsel for
Nintendo of America. "We look at [the market] as Sony,
Sega, Nintendo, and the pirates."
Games have won legions of new fans since the
introduction of PlayStation and Nintendo 64, and new
technology has made stealing games even easier than
playing them. A new breed of American pirates is doing
just that, in numbers the industry can only guess at.
In response, game companies are pouring
resources into piracy-fighting — a confusing, tedious,
and sometimes dangerous proposition. Each of the
three makers of videogame systems has hired in-house
piracy fighters; one company even has a team of five
full-time employees. Third parties like Namco, Electronic
Arts, and Capcom also devote resources to piracy¬
fighting. Many of them turn tips over to the industry's
elite team at the interactive Digital Software
Association, the game industry's trade group.
From offices in a part of Washington fashionable
enough for lobbying but low-key enough for detective
work, the team coordinates battle strategy. While the
fight against large-scale overseas counterfeit
operations in Hong Kong and Taiwan has been going on
since the 8-bit days, the proliferation of small-time,
domestic operations means that the piracy fight today
is on unfamiliar turf. "We are still in the process of
organizing the investigative and enforcement
infrastructure," says Doug Lowenstein, president of the
IDSA. That's to be expected. Although factories
overseas are kicking out gobs of counterfeit products,
American pirates are still building their theft
infrastructure.
Jack-of-all-trades is a fitting resume for a piracy
fighter. The association's president began his career as
a newspaper reporter. The anti-piracy team leader, a
former city planner, has ten years of experience fighting
counterfeiting.
Their duties range from urging foreign
governments to respect intellectual-property rights to
teaching police agencies how to spot counterfeit
goods, in some cases, they go track down pirates
themselves. The team's pursuit of McLaughlin's
negligible operation sheds light on the difficulties of
pirate-fighting. During the raid, he looked confused.
Why would a $7 billion industry send a team of lawyers
The big break finally came on
June 10, when McLaughlin offered
an agent a list of 149 games
and piracy fighters out with federal officers to
confiscate 236 games?
Sex, Lies, and Videogames
Kathlene Karg drove past the blooming cherry
blossoms on the way to headquarters on March 26,
1998. The city was aflutter with presidential scandal,
and it was a big month for anonymous tips. Karg was
interested in one about laracroftl@cybergal.com,
whoever that was.
It took only a day after her team sent an
e-mail query to find out that McLaughlin
was the man behind the laracroftl
curtain. But this time he was
writing from a different email
address. On March 27, he
offered an undercover agent
five games for a total of $46.
He gave the agent the
address of his Manhattan
apartment, requesting a
money order from the
post office.
Three months would
go by as the agents
corresponded with
McLaughlin, getting a feel
for the size of his operation.
He didn't have a web site.
75
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
NG SPECIAL
stopped. Finally, McLaughlin answered. Her team had
been chasing him in cyberspace all this time, and here
he was, apologetic, clean-shaven with shoulder-length
hair. Karg followed the marshals into his apartment. As
they checked for surprises, she found the source of the
clicking and clacking. McLaughlin had been playing
Theme Hospital on his PlayStation.
"Patients are reminded not to die in the corridors,"
the television squawked as the association's attorneys
explained why they were there and why they were
about to take away every game disc in his apartment,
Karg's team told her one day. Should they keep on it?
Tracking this new form of piracy would force her to
base many calls on instinct; the team was instructed to
stay the course.
Team members sent their email messages at off-
business hours, away from their corporate accounts.
Slowly they drew a sketch: McLaughlin kept a stockpile
of games, of which he made copies on a CD burner. If
they wanted other games, no problem. He would go
rent them from Blockbuster Video and copy them.
Soon McLaughlin started cutting deals: Buy nine at
76
Why would a $7 billion industry
sena| a team of lawyers and piracy
fighters to confiscate 236 games?
once and get the tenth free. Refer him to a friend and
get a free game.
The big break finally came on June 10, when
McLaughlin offered an agent a list of 149 games, all
priced to move at less than $11. "I'm working on inserts
folks...So now ALL games come with front and back
inserts," McLaughlin wrote, effectively confessing more
trademark and copyright infringement. "And CD LABELS
TOO!!!"
in the scale of the piracy battle, 149 games are
worth approximately nothing. But it was time for an
instinct call, and it was time to move fast. McLaughlin
had included a rambling 9-point disclaimer that he was
only selling the games as backup copies. The tone
indicated he might have been on to them.
Sixteen days and a hastily filed civil lawsuit later,
Karg found herself in the hallway outside McLaughlin's
apartment. The corridor was quiet as the two U.S.
marshals checked for a back exit. So very quiet, in fact,
that Karg could hear the clickety-clack of what sounded
like someone typing inside Apartment 2U.
Her heart, already racing, sank for a moment.
Typing could spell disaster for the raid she had been
planning for three months. If the rest of the team had
been there ten minutes earlier, the marshals would not
have been waiting in the lobby, their uniforms and flak
jackets drawing attention from the building's residents.
Now the man behind the door was typing, she thought,
hurriedly destroying the computer files she needed to
seize.
A quick knock on the door, and the clicking
legal as well as pirated. McLaughlin shut it off.
Later he would write an apology to the industry,
which Time magazine would call "very public" while
making it so. This was why the agents wanted his 236
videogames. "I wish I could tell you that persistence is
going to shut down Internet piracy in the next year,"
says Lowenstein. "What we do is look for opportunities
to set examples as a deterrent." McLaughlin was the
first example, but as long as piracy continues, he won't
be the last.
"If We Went
After All of Them..
Technology that was only just becoming available when
PlayStation and Nintendo 64 were designed — namely,
fast internet connections and inexpensive CD-ROM
burners — has enabled piracy to move down from
well-financed overseas operations to, potentially, every
bedroom in America, especially the bedrooms of the
tech-sawy early adopters that game companies
traditionally target. "Four years ago, we were seeing a
different kind of pirate," Karg says. "We send hundreds
of cease-and-desist letters," adds Flamm, the Nintendo
lawyer. "You're seeing different users, so you're going
to see different abusers."
in a report to the U.S. Trade Representative due this
summer, the IDSA plans to estimate domestic-piracy
losses for the first time ever. Some industry officials say
domestic pirates could account for close to another $1
billion in lost revenues. Estimates of lost U.S. sales
range from 3 percent to 15 percent.
How do experts arrive at these numbers? "I just
took a wild guess," one game company's chief piracy
fighter admits. The business of chasing American
pirates, for now, involves a lot of wild guessing and
selective enforcement.
in the U.S., "there's not five or six bad guys you can
go after," says Kerry Hopkins, manager of intellectual-
property compliance for Sony Computer Entertainment
America. "There's thousands of small fries, from 15-
year-old kids to 40-year-old men going into business to
support their families. If we went after all of them, it
would take as many people as we have in our
company."
Compounding that is a prevailing attitude that
videogame piracy is not a crime, or that it's a victimless
one at worst. Industry officials say they feel under
assault from American customers who would rather
buy games from pirates than pay more than $20 extra
in retail stores. The officials also think those customers
resent the industry's success with technology that they
think should be free. That perplexes pirate fighters. "You
don't say 'Just because GM had a good year, I'm going
to run out and steal a Cadillac,"' says Karg.
Partly to blame, though, is that pirate game
customers don't have to run out anywhere to steal a
videogame. Since companies began selling their games
on compact discs, counterfeiters' jobs have only gotten
easier. While copying Nintendo 64 carts is more difficult,
the small size of the ROMs means that they can be
downloaded in minutes from hundreds of web sites,
then played via a "backup device" like Dr. 64, which can
also easily be ordered online.
"You can make one investment and rip off a lot of
people," says Karg. if American pirates are slow to
figure that out, it is already the modus operandi for
overseas groups like The Players.
The Gray Market
The thermometer was creeping past 80 degrees, but it
was much hotter inside the cavernous warehouse
shared by China Airlines and Iberia Airlines at Miami
International Airport.
Customs Inspector Philip Spataro peered into a box
full of compact discs. He had played San Fransisco
Rush on his cousin's PlayStation before, and the disk he
pulled out of the box did not look the same. For
starters, the printing was terrible and the disk was not
in a case. Then he noticed the spot where Sony's
distinctive logo merging the letters P and S belonged. In
its place was a P with a basketball in the center, a
design that reminded Spataro of the Indiana Pacers
basketball team logo. He called his partner over for
help.
Pirate fighters have
Singaporean system of
hired to serve jail time
The Penalties of Piracy
what are the penalties of piracy? Although they include jail time,
small-time pirates selling or trading copies of games online should be
more afraid of the process server knocking on their door than the
FBI. Pirates figure that they are safe from copyright-infringement
penalties because of the government's limited resources, but what
they should be worried about is getting sued personally by the
copyright holder — a strategy that more and more game publishers
are pursuing.
The U.S. Copyright Act gives the copyright holder damages of up
to $100,000 for each count of infringement plus all costs and
attorney's fees. Make ten game copies (either ten different games, or
the same game ten times), and that's ten counts, with a potential
civil liability of $1,000,000. And it's not just the people copying the
games who need to be worried: although it isn't technically illegal to
merely purchase a pirated game, knowingly running a pirated game is
an infringement. Someone buying fifty pirated PlayStation games
might have saved a few thousand dollars but can be sued for up to
five million.
Copyright holders can (and do) also ask the courts to seize and
destroy the computers and CD burners used to create pirated copies.
Even if the court does not ultimately allow the equipment to be
seized (and destroyed), pirates will still be without the use of their
computer during the long litigation process.
Thanks to fast connection
speeds, full CDs are being
transferred online. Pirates who
offer games for download are
liable for copyright infringement.
This is true even if no one ever
downloads them.
What about claims that
would-be pirates are safe if they
force users to agree to delete gai
after they evaluate them for 24 h
pirates who include disclaimers that they are only
selling pirated games as legitimate "back-up copies"?
Sorry. As IDSA lawyers said to Liam McLaughlin just before they
took away every game in his apartment (as well as his CD-
ROM drive), the law just doesn't work that way — the
claims have about as much weight with a judge as
claiming you put cyanide in someone's coffee "for flavor."
Raymond w. Rowe is an intellectual property lawyer
practicing in Miami, Fla. For more information, go to
http://www.rwrowe.com or send him email at
rwrowe@abanet. org.
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _ http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
NG SPECIAL
The Future of Copy Protection
Pirates may remember the late 1990s as a golden age
— piracy has never been easier, and it will never be this easy
again, when PlayStation was released, the high cost of CD
duplicators was copy protection enough; with DVD writers
already under $1,200, Sony will not make that mistake again.
Even the latest PlayStation revision is designed to thwart
piracy: it will not play discs that are any color but black, so
pirated golden or silver CD-R discs will not work, even with the
addition of a mod chip.
What about the next generation? While a Sony
spokesperson declined to comment on specific anti-piracy
technologies, she said, "Obviously it's something we're planning
on taking care of." Nintendo has been more explicit: it's
boasted that its DVD media (produced by Matsushita) will be
"counterfeit-proof."
So what are the methods that will copy-protect games in
the next generation? Surprisingly, they're very similar to those
used in the 1980s to protect floppy disks on Apple II and
Commodore 64. Back then, a flaw was intentionally
introduced on the game disk. When you
copied a game to a new (unflawed) disk, it
v\ wrote over the segment that was flawed
on the original disk, when you ran the
game, it checked to see if anything was
written on flawed area of the disk. If
there was, it meant a copy was running,
and the program shut itself down.
SafeDisc, a division of video copy¬
protection giant MacroVision (80% of
video DVDs released feature Macrovision's copy
protection, and 100% of DVD players support it),
uses a similar system to enable PC game
makers to protect their discs: a digital code is
embedded into the disc itself. It can be read,
but not written, with conventional CD writers.
So you can copy the disc, but if you try to run it,
the program can tell that it isn't on the original disc. EA, Ubi
Soft, GT interactive, and others are starting to use SafeDisc
technology on their PC games.
Sounds good, but "counterfeit proof?" Possibly. "You can
get great copy protection," says one Nintendo developer, "if
you're willing to spend money and design custom hardware."
Both of which, he adds, Nintendo is. "Nintendo is saving so
much money switching from carts to DVDs that they can do
tons of copy protection and still save money."
The developer speculates that Nintendo Dolphin DVDs may
come with multiple pinholes in the disc — the DVD equivalent
of floppy-disk flaws. Putting holes in blank DVDs without
warping the surface will be almost impossible (as will writing to
a mutilated DVD with a standard burner), thwarting casual
pirates, and Nintendo will be able to have the drive vary its
RPMs as it scans the locations of the holes, creating, in
essence, a code on the physical surface of the disc that only it
knows how to read. Add SafeDisc-style protection as well, and
it's easy to see that the days of easy piracy may be drawing to
a close.
Chris Charla is editor in chief of Next Generation.
Despite the strength of American intellectual-
property laws, small shipments of 15 to 20 PlayStation
discs routinely pass through U.S. ports on the way to
South America. The counterfeit games must be played
on machines with a mod chip added, making their
detection easy. Hopkins, the Sony pirate fighter, had left
The industry feels under assault
frcplcudlbmers who’d rather buy
pitted games than pay $20 extra
a regular PlayStation so customs officials could test
games themselves. The Rush discs did not work on the
unaltered machine, so the officials left a voice-mail
message for Hopkins.
When she finally returned the call from the
customs agents, Hopkins was momentarily speechless.
She mustered a giggle, then repeated the number of
discs seized: 39,600 — or roughly 39,400 more than
she was expecting.
As counterfeit videogames become more popular,
the game-smuggling business is growing as well. That
fight is proving more frustrating — and dangerous —
than the battle with domestic pirates. In the countries
were piracy is most rampant, governments have weak
patent and trademark laws coupled with little desire to
enforce them.
The 28 small tan cardboard boxes from the China
Airlines flight were divided in two parts; one from Sung
Dazzle Enterprise Co. Ltd., of Taipei, Taiwan, the other
from Pt. Multi Sarana Permai in Singapore, both
destined for a distributor in Paraguay.
"You can't go after anybody criminally because it's
entirely extraterritorial," says a customs agent familiar
with the case. The countries that harbor pirates "view it
as a U.S. problem."
Game makers counter that videogame theft is a
U.S.-problem-only in that American companies are the
ones bleeding money. Pirate fighters have documented
Photographic images on these pages are actual shots from the June 1998 software-piracy bust of Liam McLaughlin
a system in Singapore of fall guys hired to
serve jail sentences for the counterfeiting
rings. In a report to the U.S. government, the
International Intellectual Property Association
detailed counterfeiting efforts pairing
Taiwanese and Chinese businesses. While
piracy is illegal in Taiwan, police demonstrate
"a recurring tendency to accept a suspected
pirate exporter's denials at face value," the
report said.
That leaves game makers on their own
against groups like The Players, a
counterfeiting and smuggling ring that uses shadow
companies for shipping but places the P logo on game
disks to ensure customers they are buying a first-rate
knock-off.
Shortly after Agent Spataro's discovery, Sony
sponsored a ceremony where the games were
destroyed. That public-relations spectacle drew a
pledge from the Taiwanese embassy in Washington to
crack down on counterfeiters and smugglers. "If you're
going to be effective at fighting pirates, you need to hit
the sources of supply," says Lowenstein. So far, many
foreign governments have been less than helpful.
Many in the industry contend that this is due to
industrial pirates overseas keeping close ties to
organized crime. While U.S. government agents laugh at
the notion of smugglers swallowing Sony PlayStations
in plastic bags, some anti-piracy agents say they have
received death threats. One industry official cited a raid
in Thailand last year where local police were shot and
tied up before eventually being rescued.
The most worrisome frontier for piracy fighters lies
in Internet auction houses and chat rooms, where there
is often no policing, and, in effect, anything goes. It is
only through months of investigation that piracy
fighters can even determine whether a given web site
is being run by an American college student or by an
organization like The Players.
If there is a silver lining, Lowenstein says, the
exploding piracy business is a measure of the
legitimate industry's popularity. "There sure are a hell of
a lot of people stealing our stuff," he says.
MICHAEL BRICK is a freelance investigative reporter.
His work has appeared in more than a dozen
newspapers, including The New York Times, The
Gazette of Montreal, and the Corpus Christi
Caller-Times. He lives in New York City.
The Future of Copy Protection
According to the 1999 annual consumer survey that the interactive
Digital Software Association (IDSA) conducts, 20 percent of the most
frequent users of PC games and one-quarter of the most frequent
console-game users agreed with the statement that "buying
counterfeit or unauthorized games is no big deal." is it "no big deal?"
is it "no big deal" that American computer and video game
publishers lost an estimated $3.2 billion worldwide in
1998 to software piracy? Consider that with the
VvpF N money lost to this theft, publishers could
have developed about 1,600 new games
that would have given all gamers a variety
of new titles to choose from.
A typical game may cost $2
million or more just to develop and
millions more to market. Is it "no big deal"
that piracy diverts precious dollars from the
legitimate retail sales that fund the future research and
development required for the next generation of games?
This practice is also a big deal to the thousands of developers
who spend 18 months pouring all their
creative energies and financial resources
into making a cutting-edge new game,
banking on the sales revenue to sustain
their next project — only to see it pirated,
sometimes even before it chalks up a dollar in
legitimate sales.
Piracy is a "big deal" and the losers are not just publishers, but
small developers and the tens of millions of game consumers who
play by the rules.
Doug Lowenstein is president of the Interactive Digital
Software Association.
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 ___ http://www.next-generation.com
/?ro/ieer
EXPLORING THE HUMAfTc□NDITI0N
"Dateless" Yota, finds himself helping the
girl he loves pursue his best friend. This
may mate him a loser, but his selflessness
allows him to find a mysterious video
store that gives him a special tape. To his
great shock, when Yota plays the VHS
tape, a girl, Al, emerges tram his TV to
comfort his broken heart!
WHAT WDULD YOU DD IF A GIRL CAME CUT OF YD UR TV?
Thirteen year-old lain receives this e-mail from a
classmate at her Jr. High, the day after the girl committed
suicide. Soon, we find lain experiencing what may be the
merWw ol Ihs retd world si the flesh, and Ihs wired world
ot computers! Winner of the 1998 Excellence Prize at the
1998 Media Art Festival by the Agency for Cultural Affairs
in Japan for "its willingness to question the meaning of
contemporary life as it depicted the development of the
computer and dm ways hi wtdck real people flve."
“I’M STILL HERE. I JUST ABANDONED MY BODY!”
What makes us human? The people of Mars
think they know, and they not only discriminate
against androids, but unofficially condone the
murder ol "Thirds", third generation cyborgs
who are indistinguishable from normal
humans. Detective Naomi Armitage assigned to
find the killer, has a more personal motivation
than anyone knows - Armitage Is alsa a THrdll
WHAT IS IT THAT MAKES US HUMAN?
www.ploneeranimation.com
or call 1-800-421-1 621
These videos are available at
these and other fine stores:
SfflURWN
suvcdsi=pnfjnnEE3(f
tM
MOTION PICTURE COMPANY
THE MOVIE STORE
M E 6 A S10 R E
...UNDER EXTREME CIRCUMSTANCES! ! !
Namco's long-running string of arcade hits
has so far been backed up with home
conversions that are, in many respects,
superior to the originals. The Tekken series
continued to set new standards of added
features with every release, but with Soul
Calibur (NG 55) coming to Dreamcast, the
development team is intent on pushing the
graphics envelope every bit as far.
Namco's character designers and 3D
artists have always been among the best in
the world (who doesn't remember their
jaw dropping when they first beheld
Tekken 's breathtaking CG intro and ending
movies?). Soul Calibur continues this
tradition of excellence, with painstaking
attention to detail, and characters (like
Taki, pictured on the previous page) whose
presence is nearly as physical as any real
actor could hope for.
Soul Calibur art by Namco's Ryoichi
Ban using Softimage, character design
by Koji Mitsunaga
this render, the image contains more
than a million polygons, 100Mb of
textures, and was rendered up to
6,000x6,000 pixels.
image rendered by DigiMania Limited,
a member of Digital Animations Group pic,
using Lightwave 3D
A flagship PC game series gets a new lease on life, while
PlayStation is graced with offbeat goodness
FINALS
Professional reviews by learned gamers
85
Ape Escape PlayStation
'Cause catching monkeys is just funny
Descent 3 pc
A classic just keeps getting better
Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest Nintendo 64 90
Bloody Roar 2
PlayStation
90
Croc 2
PlayStation
90
Warzone 2100
PlayStation
91
Alexi Lalas Soccer
PlayStation
91
GTA: London 1969
PlayStation
91
Expendable
PC
92
imperialism ll
PC
92
Jane's Fleet Command
PC
92
Midtown Madness
PC
93
Rich Diamond
PC
93
Ultimate 8 Ball
PC
93
N ext Generation’s
reviews have
gotten bigger and
better, and leaner and
meaner at the same
time. How’s the new
format working for
everyone? Love it? Hate
it? Need something
more? Let us know.
★★★★★
Revolutionary
Brilliantly conceived
and flawlessly
executed; a new high
watermark.
★★★★
Excellent
A high-quality and
inventive new game.
Either a step forward
for an existing genre or
a successful attempt at
creating a new one.
★★★
Good
A solid and competitive
example of an
established game style.
★★
Average
Perhaps competent —
certainly uninspired.
★
Bad
Crucially flawed in
design
or application.
Denotes a review of a
• Japanese product.
84
PLAYSTATION
RATING
Monkeys, time travel, and a big net —
we ask you, what J s not to like about this game?
£> APE ESCAPE
Publisher: SCEA
Developer: SCEI
The included mini-games are
far from being mere filler; they
are plenty of fun on their own
e were looking forward to
Ape Escape from the minute
we heard it was about escaped
monkeys with red flashing police
lights on their heads, and we're
happy to report that the gameplay
more than matches this awesome
premise. Ape Escape has all the
charm of Spyro the Dragon, but it's
far more compelling and
imaginative, possessing that
irresistible Japanese quirkiness
to boot.
The story is that the escaped
monkey Specter, who has stolen
an intelligence-increasing Peak
Point Helmet from a professor's
lab, is leading a band of minions
with similar hats through the
professor's time machine. It could
be Planet of the Apes all over
again, but armed with various
ingenious gadgets, it's up to the
player to put the world back
to rights.
As the character Spike, players
travel through time, tearing across
the landscape and snatching up
monkeys with a net. Those helmets
actually have a function: when
monkeys are oblivious to Spike's
presence, their helmets are a
serene blue, when they're in a
tizzy, the lights flash red and could
mean big trouble — especially
when their wearers are toting
machine guns or driving tanks.
Other monkey-catching
gadgets are doled out by the
professor and his granddaughter
Natalie as levels are completed.
With each new gadget comes a
training session, ensuring that
players aren't overwhelmed by all
the controls when they begin.
Mailboxes scattered through the
levels parcel out quick hints
as well.
What makes the game
unique is that it requires an
analog controller (Dual Shock
recommended) and fully integrates
the controller's features into
gameplay. Capturing monkeys is all
the more satisfying as the
controller vibrates excitedly, but
more importantly, control is very
precise. For example, tilting the left
stick slightly makes Spike walk;
moving it all the way makes him
run; pressing the stick down
makes him crouch; and pushing
forward makes him crawl. Rotating
the analog sticks can row the oars
of a boat or rotate the propeller of
the flying gadget. Pulling back the
right stick and letting go simulates
operating a slingshot. Even with all
this variation, the controls are far
better than most games of
this type.
These fantastic enhancements
to players' "weapons" keep
gameplay challenging and fun and
add tremendous gameplay value,
as do the varied 25 basic levels,
three boss levels, and one secret
level. From the stark snowscapes
of the Ice Age to the bizarre
innards of a huge turtle called
Dexter, boredom never enters into
the picture.
Frankly, we couldn't stop
playing. The game is extended
with several mini-games, as
well as timed racing, skiing,
swimming, and boxing, and
players can revisit lands as they
collect new gadgets to capture
previously inaccessible monkeys.
Ape Escape manages to appeal
to a very broad range of players. Its
general light-hearted cuteness
makes it ideal for younger players,
but its originality and challenge will
also appeal to the most jaded
hardcore players. A terrific game.
RATING
85
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC
86
RATING
It’s the best of the old
solid test of mettle —
, the most promising of the new, and a
here’s a sequel worthy of its heritage
DESCENT 3
Publisher: Interplay
Developer: Outrage
Entertainment
Naturally, the game supports
the latest in 3D technology
and comes chock-full of
cool lighting effects and
eyecatching explosive goodies
O t's been four long years since
the Descent revolution. Now,
the team that pioneered such
"outrageous" features as 3D
accelerator cards, competent Ai,
and internet multiplayer via Kali is
back in business.
But it's also been three
eventful years in established
action-gaming territory since the
team's last stroke upon the gaming
easel. Admittedly, the designers
need to impress an audience that's
been spoiled by Half-Life, in the
wake of this challenge, Outrage
certainly had its work cut out for it.
Fortunately, Descent's wildcard
of 1995 remains a crowning
achievement — the ability to
control your ship forward and
backward, up and down, sideways
— heck, even bank-ways. It's a
complicated skill to acquire, but the
flexibility of movement is worth the
time spent learning it. It's this
intricate gameplay element that's
hooked such a devoted online
community. And they're all
wondering just how the cliffhanger
ending from Descent 2 has been
continued.
Turns out, following the warp-
core malfunction at the end of
Descent 2, your derelict Pyro-GX
craft was rescued by an
undercover rebel contingent that
needs your help collecting proof
that the ptmc has been
deliberately spawning the same
hell-bent machinations they hired
you to destroy in the previous two
episodes. As a result, the missions
have entirely new objectives. In a
twist of irony, rather than have you
perforate a helpless reactor,
Descent 3 pits you in a frantic race
to save a helpless reactor from a
horde of overwhelming forces.
The proprietary Fusion engine
handles indoor and outdoor
environments acceptably, but it still
takes a lot of hardware to get this
tuna to fly — 128MB of RAM would
be ideal. In favor of quality over
quantity this time around, the level
count has been reduced to 15
levels. This sounds limited, but each
level is expansive and vastly
different from the next. One will
have you wandering through the
The enemy Al that the series is known for is pushed to even more
devious extremes. The word "lethal" hardly seems adequate
streets of a futuristic Japanese city.
Another will have you combing the
ruins of a deserted Martian
civilization. Look carefully and
you'll witness transparent ghosts
marching along the floor. This is
but one of boundless small
touches in the consistently awe¬
inspiring level architecture. And
this time, the automap is a much
better navigational tool for those
who get lost.
Of course, these locations
aren't just there for peaceful
ambiance. There's a whole new
cast of adversaries. Most are
entirely new, such as the
chameleon "Old Scratch" whose
slash attacks will wrench weapons
loose. Others are familiar, like the
thief bot — only now, the thief is
craftier, hiding its stolen goods in
an obscure hideaway cache. You
may later take vengeance upon the
vandal, but you'll still have to find
its treasure hold.
The guidebot is more involved
this time, but we found it
annoyingly prone to disobedience
and running in front of your targets.
Fortunately, you can keep the
incessant mongrel caged inside
your ship — or let it run loose and
use it for target practice.
Not only are these robots
varied, they're blessed with the
formidable Al that has always been
the bread and butter of the
Descent series. Each one displays a
distinct personality and demands a
variety of tactics. Finding yourself
surrounded by several different
species of these malevolent
monsters is a recipe for sheer,
deadly pandemonium.
The incessant competition can
become a frustration at times, and
it seems the design team has
realized this. Unlike before, upon
any number of deaths you'll simply
be respawned, similar to the
method previously seen in
multiplayer cooperative mode. This
eliminates the necessity for the
"creep and save" and avoids
otherwise long load times. New
pilots will nonetheless have a steep
learning curve to climb, and will
probably want to invest in a good
joystick. Despite these issues, an
involved community of fans
representing a wide spectrum of
skill levels are already pouring into
Parallax Online for free Internet
multiplayer.
And here's where things are
Exciting as the newly added outdoor environments may be, the
faithful can still expect more of the twisting, vertigo-inducing flights
down every corridor and shaft of the planet's interior as well
Finding yourself surrounded by several
different species of malevolent monsters is a
recipe for sheer, deadly pandemonium
most enticing of all. Descent 3 has
fathomless depths of multiplayer
potential. Nine modes and 15 more
multiplayer levels are included out
of the box. And if the past is any
measure, third-party levels will likely
eclipse even the originals in
popularity, weapon balance has
been modified wisely. Smart
missiles travel slower, megas are
still powerful but don't track as
well, and none of the new
weapons disrupt the balance. Each
weapon yields unique advantages;
there's no dominating "rocket
launcher" to speak of. It all adds up
to one of the most thrilling
multiplayer experiences available.
Although Descent 3 is a sequel
by definition, it feels as original as
any newcomer, while at the same
time remaining faithful to the
premise and strengths of its
predecessors. Outrage has made
our job simple. It doesn't get much
better than this.
RATING
★★★★★
Heaven help you if you get
stuck in a room full of bots —
the action is fast and furious,
and Descent amateurs need
not apply
87
The one thing that Descent 3
offers that other entries in the
series never really did (thanks
to everything being indoors) is a
variety of environments
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
From the editors of Next Generation...
The Best Games.
The Best Graphics
The Best Mascot.
Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine.
The Best Read.
On sale everywhere August 24 th .
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
N64/PSX
RATING
CROC 2
KEN GRIFFEY JR.’S SLUGFEST
90
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Fox
Interactive
Developer: Argonaut
□ higeru Miyamoto won't lose any
sleep over it, but Croc 2 is still
one of the better 3D platform games
to come along. That's a pleasant
surprise, given the aggressive
mediocrity of the original.
Argonaut’s sequel is a bigger,
more varied beast, with mine-cart
levels, boat races, and balloon rides.
There are more than 40 non-linear
levels, many packed with mini-games
and return trips for extra gems and
goodies, and each path leads Croc one
step closer to defeating the pernicious
Baron Dante. Croc 2 is impressive in
size, and gamers will have to put in
serious time to finish it.
Argonaut wrings special effects
with craft and care from the aging
PlayStation hardware, and the 3D
landscapes are not only huge, they're
textured in a cute, cartoon style that's
consistent to the end. But it must be
said: Croc 2 is so insufferably adorable
that although it nails the 12-and-under
market, it may leave the 13-and-above
crowd giggling at its short, stubby
characters, simplistic graphics, and
nonsensical language. Like Banjo-
Kazooie, the gibberish is good fun for
about ten minutes — after that it's
time to look for the mute button.
Two problems Croc 2 has going
against it are occasional annoying
camera angles and slightly loose
control. If you turn around in tight,
narrow passages, Croc can only run
into the camera; what's more, we wish
that when Croc stopped, he halted on
a dime, not on a silver dollar.
Despite this. Croc 2 is one of the
better 3D platformers on PlayStation, if
just by a claw.
Platform: Nintendo BA
Publisher: Nintendo
Developer: Angel Studios
If you can learn how to hit the
ball, Ken Griffey Jr.'s Slugfest
makes baseball seem fun
he latest in the Ken Griffey Jr.
series, Slugfest takes the arcade
feel of the franchise to wonderful new
levels, it has all the modes of play
(exhibition, season, home run derby,
and world Series) that we take for
granted in contemporary baseball
games, as well as an excellent create-
a-player mode.
Graphically, Slugfest is clean but
uninspired. The stadiums are decently
rendered, offering a real sense of
depth, but the players are of the
cookie-cutter variety, offering little to
distinguish them from each other
except for skin tone. Still, what they
lack in beauty they make up for with a
wide variety of expressive animations.
When it comes to gameplay,
Slugfest eliminates the bug-ridden
fielding problems that have plagued
the series and offers the player
hardcore arcade thrills, impossibly
high scores and cartoon-like sound
effects create an atmosphere of
goofy fun that's a refreshing change
from the stark realism of so many
baseball titles this year.
Still, while Slugfest is definitely
more an arcade experience than a
simulation, it's also an incredible
challenge. With no difficulty setting in
the season mode, playing as the World
Champion NY Yankees is hardly going
to stop you from getting shut out by
Detroit. The pitches zip over the plate,
and the on-screen display of where
the pitch is headed is only there for a
moment before the throw. After that,
you have to follow the actual ball,
work on your timing, and pray.
The best place to work on the
batting basics is the home run derby,
and this time-honored feature has
rarely been done better than Slugfest.
Everything the game does right shines
through here: screaming fans and
fireworks accompany 500-foot-plus
home runs that smash against
scoreboards and disappear over walls.
This is the one of the best arcade
baseball titles in a while. Sure, the
graphics pale in comparison to
Acclaim's All-Star Baseball 2000, and
realism is notably absent, but if you're
more concerned about white knuckled
multiplayer games and .500 batting
averages than pitching duels and
squeeze plays, this is your game.
BLOODY ROAR 2
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Hudson Soft
aking a successful 3D fighting
game on PlayStation is a
daunting task indeed. The system is
absolutely awash with excellent titles
from Namco, Capcom, and even
Square. Luckily for us, Hudson and
Sony are up to the task with Bloody
Roar 2. Like the first Bloody Roar, the
sequel stars a cast of nine martial-
arts experts with the unique ability to
morph into a variety of different
animals. Along with a life bar, every
combatant has a "rave meter" that
fills up at varying speeds depending
on how much damage the fighter
inflicts or absorbs. When the rave
meter starts to flash, you can change
into an animal. Each character has an
animal alter ego that makes them
faster and stronger than in their
human form, it's a welcome addition
to the fighting genre, to say the least.
Not only does morphing open up a
whole new set of moves, but it adds a
whole new element of strategy to the
combat. Morphing at the right time
can easily make the difference
between winning and losing, and
smart players will quickly learn to use
it wisely.
Hudson has really beefed up the
in-game features, too. Aside from the
regular one-on-one fighting and
survival modes, Bloody Roar 2 also
features an amusing story mode, an
edit mode where you can change the
look and physics of the fighters, and
an interesting secret mode that
allows you to create and link your
own combos and attacks.
Unfortunately, there were also
some changes made to the balance
of the fighters. Many of the fighters
in the sequel seem terribly powerful
in comparison to others, especially in
the hands of expert players. Some
characters have really excellent
linking attacks and combos, and
others don't. After some play time,
we noticed that we were picking the
same few fighters over and over
again because we knew their attacks
Bloody Roar 2 is the
surprisingly good follow-up
to a surpisingly good original
were better than the rest. A greater
boost to the weaker characters
would have been a welcome
addition.
in the end, however, Bloody Roar
2 is a visually pretty and fun-to-play
fighting game with just enough to set
it apart from the rest of the "me too"
titles. Despite the minor balancing
issues, there is a whole lot to like.
PLAYSTATION
RATING
WARZONE 2100
ALEXI LALAS IIMTL. SOCCER
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Eidos Interactive
Developer: Pumpkin Studios
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Take 2 Interactive
Developer: Z-Axis
□ s a strategy game for PC,
Warzone 2100 is a four-star
diversion, but the console version falls
far short of even that goal.
Both versions are notable for
their attempts to inject new life into
the RTS mold. The most interesting
feature of the game is easily the
"create-a-unit" option. Unlike other
strategy games, you don't research
individual units. Instead you research
components, which can then be mixed
and matched to form units. With over
2,000 possible combinations, there are
plenty of options.
Another unique feature of the
game is the persistence of the world.
Moving from mission to mission
doesn't necessarily mean starting from
scratch. The player's base and units
stay intact, giving the player an
advantage, warzone 2100 provides a
viable reason to protect your base, as
it now becomes foolish to sacrifice it
for the sake of a single mission.
Despite these unique features,
however, Warzone 2100 remains a
barely average console title due to a
poor controller interface; although it's
nearly identical to that of the PC
version, it works poorly with a console
pad, creating much initial frustration.
If you're willing to sit for a few
hours and learn the intricacies of
playing with a standard controller (or if
Warzone 2100: further proof
that PlayStation needs more
than just a straight PC port
you're one of the two people who own
a PlayStation mouse), Warzone 2100
can be an enjoyable game. Otherwise,
stick to the PC version. The two play
almost exactly the same, except that
the mouse is standard on PC.
As it is, Warzone 2100 for
PlayStation is practically the definition
of shuffleware.
he last time soccer star Alexi
Lalas attached his name to a
sports title, it was a silly arcade
game for PC called Red Hot Soccer.
This time around, though, he's got it
right. If you're looking for speedy, no-
nonsense physical play, you could do
a lot worse than Alexi Lalas
international Soccer.
On some levels, this flies in the
face of some stiff PlayStation
competition, including FIFA '99 and
even World Cup '98, but the game
still holds its own. A manageable
interface enables smooth control for
some 70 soccer clubs based on
classic international teams. You'll get
all the necessary gameplay goodies
like passing and precise shooting,
sudden death overtime, and penalty-
kick shootouts.
You can play friendly matches
or dive into tournament play, and
you can also customize your teams
with ease. The team-management
function allows you to pick your
team and opponent, change
formations and positions to suit your
attack, and swap players either
before the game or during play.
You get some slick graphics,
too. Six different cameras follow the
play, utilizing some 250 motion-
captured movements provided by
American star Eric Wynalda. Most of
Alexi Lalas international Soccer
gets by mostly on personality,
but it's worth a look
the action is seen from a side¬
scrolling overhead camera, but
spectacular moves and goals get full
camera treatment in replays.
The main drawback (if you're
slow to pick up defensive codes) is
the way opposing teams gloat when
they score a goal on you. Dancing
and high-fiving is a staple of almost
all sports. But these animated hot
dogs take it to extremes and all but
rub your nose in it.
Then again, that may encourage
you to learn faster, play harder and
rack up some "in your face!" get-
even time. Then you can rub
someone else's nose in it.
GRAND THEFT AUTO: LONDON 1969
Platform: PlayStation
Publisher: Rockstar
Developer: Take 2
it's not exactly "shagadelic," but
Grand Theft Auto: London 1969
is still a decent romp through a
life of crime — sure, it's morally
reprehensible, but at least you
have a reasonably good time
□ hat bad boy of PC and console
is back. Remember Grand Theft
Auto, the rollicking king of digital
misbehavior? Its casual approach to
larceny, hit-and-run, drive-by
shootings, and general mayhem
raised disapproving eyebrows in the
press and sent parental
temperatures soaring.
Now we have Grand Theft Auto:
London 1969, the first mission pack
ever for PlayStation, which is news in
itself — though not necessarily
welcome news if you don't have the
original GTA in your personal game
library. If you don't though, you still
have a few options. Keep reading.
Although set in swinging, bell-
bottom-and-suede-era London, the
premise is roughly the same as in
the original. You're a low-grade
hood, trying to fight your way to the
top of London's criminal food chain.
You'll trot from phone to phone for
assignments, steal cars, accumulate
weapons, shoot it out with mob
enemies, and elude police. As you
scale the depths of gangsterdom,
you'll break the law in just about
every way imaginable.
A top-down map offers three
big London levels and 33 distinct
missions. The music is cool and the
Brit ambiance fun, although the
game is a bit short. Even with all the
nefarious assignments (including
some that are hidden), it doesn't
take that long to work your way to
the end — two or three days at most
and it's over.
Worse, as a mission pack it
requires the older GTA to run. If you
have the original, an add-on may
seem an excellent idea. You'll get
fresh activity and a new criminal
reputation for a very low price. But if
you don't have the earlier game,
you'd be better off buying Grand
Theft Auto: Director's Cut (also from
Rockstar), which includes both the
original and the London mission pack
in one case.
Either way though, GTA: London
1969 is an enjoyable, if short lived,
romp on the seamier side of the
hippie-era Brit night life.
***"£•& |
91
RATING
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 _http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
PC
RATING
JANE’S FLEET COMMAND
EXPENDABLE
92
Platform: PC
Publisher: Electronic Arts/ Jane’s Combat Simulations
Developer: Sonalysts
Platform: PC
Publisher: Rage Software
Developer: Rage Games
□ he Jane's Combat people have a
high-flying reputation for
sticking to realism and accuracy. This
time, however, they've added 3D eye
candy to Fleet command, a real-time
naval strategy game.
The realism is still intact. Jane's
Fleet Command puts you in control of
a flotilla of modern fighting ships.
You'll send submarines skulking into
enemy waters, dispatch helicopters,
launch fighters from carriers, and fire
an arsenal of deadly missiles. They're
all accurately designed and based on
actual performance, if a real-life
frigate is slow, your frigate is slow, if a
real cruiser is armed to the teeth, so
is yours. Each plane has its fuel-based
range. Go beyond it, and you'll never
get home. One would expect no less
from Jane's.
it's a complicated game, but the
controls are remarkably easy to
master. Four tutorials teach you the
interface, the intricacies of air
combat, surface operations, and how
to use your carriers, in no time, you're
ready to go to war. The rigorous
combat situations are hypothetical
but drawn from today's headlines
(and in a bit of "truth is stranger than
fiction," network news shows used it
once as a visual aid during a U.S.
bombing raid on Iraq).
Pace is a problem. Naval
engagements typically occur over
great distances, and it takes time to
place your fleet and close on the
enemy. That's where the 3D comes
into play. The game screen has a large
2D map at the top, and a smaller
regional map, 3D window, and data
display at the bottom. But a key tap
swaps the 3D and 2D displays, giving
you an oversized view of unfolding
action.
So if the game turns slow and
your ship is in no immediate danger,
hook onto a Harpoon or a Sidewinder
and follow the streaking missile to its
target. You'll get some satisfying
kabooms.
IMPERIALISM II
Platform: PC
Publisher: Strategic
Simulations
Developer: Frog City
A game that was pretty good to
start with (and has its cadre of
devotees) gets even better with
the sequel, imperialism ll
□ If you like building empires
through exploration, trade,
diplomacy, conquest, and old-
fashioned financial chicanery,
imperialism ll is the only way to go.
Hot on the heels of the
successful SSI original, this turn-based
sequel may remind you of other
strategy games like Civilization and
Age of Empires, but it has its own
unique charm. There are the usual
tasks like building roads, managing
resources, manipulating political
alliances, and repelling foreign
invasions on the European homefront,
but you'll also do your best to explore
and conquer the Americas so you can
bring home rare minerals and luxury
products like sugar, furs, and tobacco
to keep your population happy.
The New world is the added
dimension in this wicked
Machiavellian exercise. The original
imperialism was set in the IS 01 and
I9 m centuries, with the European
states pretty well established.
imperialism ll goes back to an earlier
time, with untold riches and plunder
Jane's simulations are some
of the best around, and Fleet
Command is no exception
lying across a dark sea, waiting to be
plucked by the first daring seafarers
to reach them.
Strategy is, of course, the
backbone of the game. But
imperialism ll demands more than
just outproducing and outgunning
your neighbors. You also need trade
skills, transportation sense, and
military know-how to build and feed
your industrial force, dispatch sailing
ships, and in general do your
damnedest to outmaneuver other
powers on the diplomatic front.
The graphics are fairly simple,
with only a few animations to liven
the scenery. But the interface has
been simplified (it's much easier to
pull up order screens in this version
than in the original), and the artificial
intelligence is a lot smarter. Best of
all, the fog-shrouded New world, with
its trusting tribes and waiting riches,
makes imperialism ll a whole new
ball game.
in fact, it's proof positive that
turn-based strategy is far from dead.
□ ne of Rage's previous PC efforts,
incoming, was a brilliant
demonstration of what could be
accomplished with the latest 3D
technology, yet it suffered criticism
that its gameplay was shallow and
repetitive. Those criticisms could
certainly be leveled at Expendable, a
better, but still limited, title.
The gameplay borrows ideas
from a number of classic and
contemporary shoot-'em-ups. The
designers confess the design was
influenced by titles like Capcom's
classic Commando and SNK's early
effort, ikari warriors. Naturally, the
gameplay has been updated to involve
extra weapons and plenty of graphical
flare. The player guides a lone warrior
through scrolling hazard-filled terrain,
destroying anything in his way.
The main character is a
genetically engineered soldier and is
introduced in a remarkably (if
incongruously amusing) rendered
movie. After that it's auto-fire on, brain
off, as you force your way into levels
so pyrotechnically overdone that it's
often difficult to track the progress of
your soldier — the same problem that
affected ASC's One.
There are some frills and features
in Expendable that provide added
value. A two player cooperative mode
is fun (although it does make things
even more cluttered) and bump¬
mapping is used to good effect on
suitably equipped PCs. Environments,
while visually similar, switch from
indoor to outdoor smoothly.
All in all, a smart little shooter, but
one with limited appeal in the PC
market. A forthcoming Dreamcast
version may be a better fit.
Expendable doesn't exactly live
down to its title — it's decent
enough if you turn off your brain
PC/N64
RATING
MIDTOWN MADNESS
ULTIMATE 8 8ALL
Platform: PC
Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Angel Studios
Platform: PC
Publisher: THQ
Developer: Mirage
idtown Madness is more than
just another pedal-to-the-metal
tribute to modern road rage, it's a
harrowing exercise in manic high¬
speed racing competition through
extraordinarily crowded streets.
Chicago is the real star of this
arcade racer. You get miles of free-
ranging city streets. You can follow
marked courses or just go cruising. All
the familiar landmarks are there, from
wrigley Field in the north to
Chinatown, Soldier Field, and the Adler
Planetarium in the south.
wherever you go, you'll do it at
top speed. Races include quick
checkpoint sprints, longer circuit races
with laps over charted courses, and
all-out blitz races. Most of the later
levels are locked. As a beginner, you
must finish in the top three in at least
three races to move on. Sign on as a
pro, and only wins will work.
Selection of vehicles is pretty
wild, as well. You get the usual mix of
Mustangs, GTRs, Caddies, and
roadsters — but you also get sturdy
pickup trucks, city buses, and 18-
wheeler semis, guaranteed to bust
through traffic.
The sound is solid — nice music,
the crunch of metal, screeching sirens
as the local fuzz try to catch you, and
snotty spectators shouting insults
when your driving turns erratic. More
impressive are the accelerated
graphics. Random movements are
Shades of The Blues Brothers
— Midtown Madness lets you
scream through the streets of
Chicago at I20mph
thoroughly detailed, from cars hurtling
in front of you to cringing pedestrians
when you lurch onto sidewalks. Buzz
by O'Hare airport and you'll even see
planes take off and land.
Midtown Madness may not be a
groundbreaking racing game, but it'll
stay on your hard drive for a while and
keep you playing.
□ n an age where deer hunting,
fishing, and bowling games
seem nearly ubiquitous, it seems
strange that pool has taken such a
back seat, if there's a sport that
"American guys" can really sink their
teeth into, then it has to be pool.
THQ's latest iteration of the game
seems almost ridiculously
comprehensive.
First things first: the graphics,
which include fully rendered 3D
players, would look pretty good in the
latest id title, never mind a billiards
simulation. The table renders are also
beautiful, and ball animation is perfect
(if your machine can handle it).
There are 14 different games to
choose from, including U.S. and British
8 Ball (it was developed by the U.K.
company Mirage), standard 9 Ball and
some slightly more obscure variations
including Cut Throat, TenPin, 10 Ball,
and Rotation. There are initially 15
opponents to choose from, each with
a distinct visual and pool style —
however, they all seem to be pretty
tough. This game gets hard very
quickly in one-player mode. There are
fifteen table shapes and sizes, too,
giving you something to complain
about when you miss an easy plant.
Although the single player
modes are varied and attractive, the
multi (two, to be precise) player
options are even more engrossing.
The game can be played on a LAN or
via the internet, and the nature of the
game means that LAN lag and even
modem speed are hardly an issue. All
of which amounts to an absorbing
and ultimately impressive pool title —
making the most of a simple concept.
RICH DIAMOND
Platform: Nintendo 64
Publisher: Ubi Soft
Developer: Core Concepts
If you like weak puzzle games,
then boy, is Rich Diamond right
up your alley — and may God
have mercy on your soul
escribed by developer Core
Concepts as a "logical problem¬
solving game with an exciting
action/adventure feel," Rich Diamond
is actually a puzzle game wherein you
play the role of a treasure hunter who
must relentlessly pursue his beloved
diamonds through eighty-plus levels
full of monsters, arrows, ice, and
huge rolling boulders. The game is
played from a top-down perspective
using either the mouse or the arrow
keys, moving Rich Diamond one
square at a time in one of the four
primary directions. The object is to
move pieces of the environment in
the right sequences to reach the
elusive diamonds, in an interesting
wrinkle, instead of having to take the
levels in order, they're presented in
groups that can be tackled in any
order, but which all must be
completed before you can move on
to the next group.
Unfortunately, whatever the
developer may claim, there's no
action or adventure to be found in
Rich Diamond beyond its meager
attempt at a story and the fact that
the motif happens to be of the
Indiana Jones type — the objects in
the game could have just as well
been ray guns and Martians and it
would have been the exact same
game. The puzzle aspect is strong if
a bit predictable; the levels have
customizable backgrounds (desert,
dungeon, jungle, or random) that
break up the monotony; and a few of
the puzzles are clever, although none
are ever exactly brain twisting.
Rich Diamond has a pleasant
feel and a sticker price under thirty
dollars: reason enough, perhaps,
for some to give it a glance.
However, considering how many
better puzzle games there are out
there (often costing even less), the
rest of us don't think it's much of a
bargain.
93
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
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It is an impossible dream...
like a summer meadow in Manhattan
It is about having the car and getting the girl,
and still being a nice guy...
It is about falling down,
and getting up again,
smiling through the pain and
laughing through the tears...
The Best Read.
Official Sega Dreamcast Magazine. On sale everywhere August 24th.
From the editors of Next Generation...
The Best Games.
The Best Graphics.
The Best Mascot.
GAME PRODUCERS
PRODUCT MARKETING MANAGERS
Interested applicants should FAX their resume
to (212) 334-5152. Att: Christine
| ROCKSTAR AND TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE SOFTWARE ARE HIRING
I We are on the lookout for industry
] seasoned talent to work
I paced NYC headquarters in the
following areas:
us try HI
fast
ENDING
A
QUESTION
Treasure’s Contra clone for
Genesis, which pushed the
system to heights it never
saw again
WHAT EUER
HAPPENED TO?
Lords of Conquest
Based on a board game,
this turn-based strategy
title from EA featured four-
player-simultaneous play, a la
M.U.L.E. and may have been
the first game to enable you to
create your own play maps
Next Generation, a link to the past
Retroview
by Stewen Kent, author of a forthcoming book on the history of videogames
ACCOLADE vs. SEGA Part II
n April 3,1992, Judge Barbara
Caulfield ruled in favor of
Sega in a lawsuit against Accolade
and ordered the small software
maker to stop manufacturing,
distributing, and developing
Genesis-compatible products. At
first glance, Judge Caulfield's
decision seemed in harmony with
the outcome of another
infringement case that had recently
concluded. The other case involved
unauthorized NES cartridges being
manufactured by Atari Games under
the Tengen label. Nintendo had
prevailed, but there were other
circumstances involved. Atari had
obtained plans for NES lockout
security by falsely claiming they
needed it for a court case to the
Copyright Office. Accolade reverse
engineered Genesis on its own. This
form of reverse engineering was
protected by the Fair use Doctrine,
which defined how products could
be examined and used.
Accolade appealed Judge
Caulfield's decision, and the case
went to Stephen Reinhardt of the
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on
July 20,1992. (Reinhardt was the
judge who presided over the Roe v.
Wade abortion rights trial.) in his
handling of this case. Judge
Reinhardt demonstrated a clear-
minded perception of the issues at
hand and a broad understanding of
the Fair use Doctrine, which was the
legal premise that was the
underpinning of Accolade's case.
The question is whether the
computer manufacturer may enjoin
competing cartridge manufacturers
from gaining access to its
computers through the use of the
code on the ground that such use
will result in the display of a false
trademark. Again, our holding is
based on the public policies
underlying the statue. We hold that
when there is no other method of
access to the computer that is
known or readily available to rival
cartridge manufacturers, the use of
the initialization code does not
violate the Act even though that use
triggers a misleading trademark
display.
Judge Reinhardt
Reinhardt noted that the TMSS
file, which contained somewhere
between 20 and 25 bytes of data,
was miniscule when compared to
the 500,000 to 1,500,000 bytes of
data contained in the entire game.
The data in the games, according to
Reinhardt, was overwhelmingly
original and deserved to compete in
a free market. This, he felt, was to
the benefit of the public.
Sega's attorneys defended the
original decision by pointing out
that their client had invested time
and capital designing and
manufacturing Genesis. Even after
Genesis shipped, Sega continued
spending millions of dollars
marketing it. They characterized
Accolade as a "free rider" benefiting
from time and investment.
Reinhardt dismissed this argument,
however, as the "'sweat of the
brow' rationale for copyright
protection." Just as Judge Caulfield
said that Accolade took a risk in
adding the TMSS code and could be
excused by claiming it did not know
that using the code would result in
a trademark abuse, Judge Reinhardt
now held Sega responsible for
attaching its trademark to an
unlicensed game.
Sega knowingly risked two
significant consequences: the false
labeling of some competitors'
products and the discouraging of
other competitors from
manufacturing Genesis-compatible
games. Under the Latham Act, the
former conduct, at least, is clearly
unlawful.
Judge Reinhardt
Without completely absolving
Accolade of all wrongdoing, Judge
Reinhardt struck down Judge
Caulfield's injunctions. The
immediate ramifications of Judge
Reinhardt's rulings were short-lived.
Within a year of the trial, Accolade
was an official Sega licensee. The
long-term ramifications of the case
were significant, however. Sega
Enterprises v. Accolade has been
sited in nearly every videogame trial
involving reverse engineering and
unlicensed products since 1993,
and will almost inevitably be
mentioned in Sony's upcoming
cases against Connectix and Bleem.
Sega v. Accolade has been cited in
nearly every videogame trial involving
reverse engineering since 1993
RETROVIEW
Relode
nyone who owned a
personal computer in the
early '80s will likely recall a clever
puzzle and action game titled
Lode Runner. Few know, however,
that this was the debut game
from a University of Washington
student named Douglas Smith.
In the summer of 1982, Smith
wrote Donkey Dung on a
mainframe VAX 11780 computer
while working in the University's
secretary, in an effort to keep his
desk clear, was summarily
rejecting all submissions.
Smith's hopes were bruised,
but at the urging of a local
Computerland employee who
loved and believed in the game,
he persevered. His next step was
to borrow a thousand bucks to
purchase a color monitor, a
joystick, and some development
software that enabled him to add
On a whim Smith submitted the game,
under the name Miner , to software
publisher Broderbund
computer center, in lieu of
graphics, Smith used the available
character set, casting the dollar
sign as the protagonist and the
paragraph marks as enemies. He
had no intention of marketing the
project, which he created just for
the fun of it.
When his nephew expressed
an interest in playing the game at
home, however, Smith spent three
days rewriting the game for the
Apple II. And on a whim, Smith
submitted the game, under the
name Miner, to software publisher
Broderbund. The response was as
prompt as it was hopeless: He
received a one-line rejection letter
that same week. Little did Smith
know that Broderbund's president,
Doug Carlson, was out of the
office with a broken leg. His
color graphics and joystick
support to the game.
He then re-submitted the
game to Broderbund as well as
three other Apple II software
publishers: Sierra, Synergistic, and
Sirrus. Within three days, he had
eager offers from all four
companies.
Since Broderbund was more
of a known quantity to Smith than
the other companies were, he
chose it as the game's publisher.
Broderbund's major suggestion for
the game was a name change.
Because the name Miner was so
similar to another computer game.
Miner 2049er, Broderbund
renamed the game Lode Runner.
From December to June,
Smith created the final Apple II
version of Lode Runner. The first
copy of Lode Runner shipped June
23,1983. Since that time, Lode
Runner and its sequels have been
ported to 15 computer and game
platforms and sold more than
three million copies worldwide.
Surprisingly, Smith didn't
follow up the game with more
titles: between 1983 and 1990, he
became a full-time ski bum and
disassociated himself from the
game industry.
But in 1990, Smith "got
sucked back in" and ended up
working at a string of companies:
Distinctive Software, Square Soft,
Microprose, and EA. Recently he
guided Big Bang software's
development of Lode Runner 3D,
published by Infogrames for
Nintendo 64. RDjeD
Douglas smith, the man who
started the Lode Runner dynasty
while still a student at the
university of Washington
NEXT GENERATION August 1999 http://www.next-generation.com
NEXT GENERATION August 1999
Write in the center of things
Letters
□ 've heard two rumors about
Dreamcast. The first was
that it would launch with Sega
Rally 2. The other said that there
would be a "Dreamcast Magazine"
simultaneously launching with the
system that would have a demo
disc every month (sort of like
what your magazine used to have)
but was strictly Dreamcast stuff.
Can you clarify these?
Ariel A. Ventura
acedaman@att.net
Yes, and yes. Sega Rally 2 will be
available shortly after the U.S.
launch, and there will be a
Dreamcast magazine. In fact,
Next Generation alum Simon
Cox is the editor in chief, joined by
Advanced Strategies guru
Francesca Reyes. It will be
published by Imagine Media on a
bimonthly schedule. And it will
include a demo disc.
read NG 54's article about
Dreamcast vs. PlayStation 2
and there was something you said
that, now that I think of it, I have
to say sounds completely wrong,
in your assessment of PlayStation
2's "weaknesses" you contend
that because it is backward-
compatible with PlayStation 1, it
will be tougher for new software
to stand out. Wouldn't backward
compatibility only help it? It's
because of backward
compatibility l know I'm going to
buy one. The real reason I think it
will work is because the PC has
been doing this forever, but that
doesn't stop people from buying
the best, newest software, it just
means that people don't have to
eventually throw out all their old
games like a lot of people do. I
mean even now you can buy $10
games, but what do you save your
money for? You save it for the
new $50 game that everybody
says is great.
Josh Boutte
goku_1 12@yahoo.com
A better analogy than PC, where
hardware performance increases
every day, is Game Boy Color.
While the color version is clearly
superior to the monochrome one,
many publishers are still insisting
that developers make games that
are compatible with both, and it is
tough for color-exclusive titles to
stand out on shelves — the boxes
look the same, so why pay $40
for this one when another costs
only $15? For informed
consumers (like the readers of
this magazine), this isn't a big
deal, but for the vast majority of
game buyers — the mass market
— it could be, which would be a
serious problem for publishers.
ooking over the videogame
rating system the last time l
was in Wal-Mart, I noticed there
was an Adults Only rating, but I've
never seen any game rated Adult,
only Mature. Are there any games
rated Adult?
Tim Herschbach
Grove, OK
Believe it or not, there are a few
titles that carry the- ESRB "Adults
Only," or A-0 rating, which seems
to be reserved exclusively for
products containing "Strong Sexual
Content." Probably for this reason,
you're not likely to find them at
Wal-Mart or any other large chain,
like CompUSA, for example — they
categorically refuse to carry titles
with that rating, in fact, a couple of
years back when Phantasmagoria
II: A Puzzle of Flesh (which included
scenes in a bondage club and a
brief topless shot) was threatened
with an A-0 rating, Sierra declined
to have the ESRB rate the game at
all, instead putting their own "17+"
stickers on the shrinkwrap just so
major outlets would stock it (not
that this helped — the game still
stunk, and it bombed).
Actually, of the ten (count 'em:
ten ) titles which have submitted to
the ESRB's A-0 rating, most of
them are called things like All Nude
Nikki, and only one, Black
Dragon's Rianna Rouge, can even
really be classified as a game (and
even in that case, it's a stretch).
Fact is, most of the titles that
could be rated A-0 are made by
folks who probably don't care the
ESRB exists and don't plan on
hawking their wares in places
where games are sold anyway.
n pages 60-61 of ng 54,
there's an ad for the
"TiltPak" N64 controller. There's a
middle-aged man playing a game
on N64, and the controller isn't
even plugged into the first-player
slot, which is an obvious goof, but
what game is that he's playing? I
don't know of any space mecha
game for N64 other than Star Fox,
and that's not Star Fox. It's not a
Japanese game, because the box
is an American one, and the
lettering is too blurry to read. It
looks so cool, anime-style mecha
on the N64... drool...
Jonathan □ Ma
jonjonm@juno.com
Actually, there's no reason to be
excited whatsoever — the game
in the ad doesn't really exist. It's
just a composite of a few CG
elements put together by the
company that made the ad.
According to a source at Pelican
Accessories, using an actual game
image would have meant paying
somebody for it, so they faked it.
Now, please put your saliva back
where it belongs.
n your review of Street
Sk8ter you mentioned Skate
or Die as being released on Atari
7800. As far as I can remember
(from many enjoyable hours
playing it) this game was released
on NES, not on Atari 7800.
John Anderson
usurpen_31 @hotmail.com
You are indeed correct, sir. The
reviewer in question (who was
possibly confused by thinking of
Super Skateboardin' for Atari 7800
— a truly loathsome title easily on
par with Street SkSter) has been
locked in the basement with a
grue and no light. We're sure he'll
feel really bad, if he lives.
'd just like to say a few
words about media hype
and how it effects games and
gaming systems in the industry.
As the average idiot can tell you,
it can either boost support for a
system or totally kill it. What
bothers me is all the hype about
Sega Dreamcast. Just stop it and
let the system prove for itself that
it is the best on the market. I've
been quite annoyed at all the
attention you've given the system,
and quite frankly, l could give a
rat's ass. It's not even out yet.
if Sega wants me to buy one, they
should let the games and the
system speak for themselves and
not rely on the hype you and the
various ads that I've seen
generate.
Let me give you an example
of how hype affected me. After
many anticipated months of the
release of zelda 64 ,1 was excited
when the game finally came out,
and l brought my reserved copy
home. After a week, I finished it
and l was sorely disappointed.
Ocarina of Time was just a version
of A Link To The Past with a
facelift. All the news reports,
advertising, reviews, and other
media nonsense that pointed
out that this was going to be a
great game were far from the
truth. It was so totally unoriginal,
and l was a sucker for buying into
the hype.
So please let Dreamcast stand
on its own. If it is the great system
you claim it to be, it will impress
me without the hype, and I will
purchase it. Sorry if I offended
anyone. It's just something to think
about.
Ricky Brantley
Lynn Haven, FL
For the record, Ricky, Dreamcast
is out, and has been for some
time in Japan, and it's fair game
for evaluating. We at Next
Generation have never
deliberately "hyped" anything, we
happen to like Dreamcast and
many of its games, and as a new
system it bears as much coverage
as we can give it (as will
PlayStation 2 and Nintendo's
Dolphin, in their time) — we're
called Next Generation for a
reason. And if you're in the habit
of letting things build up in your
mind until the reality can't
possibly satisfy you, we
can't help you there. 0\E©
Phone: 219-493-3722
Everybody has the
ewest, latest, greatest]
(we do to)._I
It's just that,
we do so love
IF YM
find rr t .
YW HAVFNT
CALLED tiSll
Next Generation Letters, 150 North Hill Dr., Brisbane, CA 9-40D5.
Fax us: C41 5D 4B8-4BB6. Email us: ngonline@imaginemedia.com
You can’t see your opponent. Sometimes that’s a good thing
Everybody needs games.
Even this guy. We’re talkin’
cards. Board games. Hey,
even chat with opponents
while you play. Actually,
Yahoo! Games
I\lext Month
On September 9,1999...
Sega will unleash its last attempt at console dominance.
Should you buy Dreamcast?
Next month we answer that question with:
In-depth analysis of Sega's launch plans
60+ Dreamcast games previewed
• First U.S. launch titles reviewed
PLUS:
Revolutionary times
demand a revolutionary
magazine. Next month, we
reveal the new Next Gen
Next Generation #57
on sale August 17,1999
Smart readers have already subscribed. To find out how you can save money
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